📍Řevnice, Czech Republic
1959 – 1975“Martina Navratilova was born in Prague in October 1956, and after her parents divorced when she was about three, her mother, Jana, a gymnast, skier and tennis player, moved the family to Řevnice, a small town on the River Berounka in the wooded hills south-west of Prague. They lived on what was left of her grandparents' estate, which the Communist government had taken; all that remained was the family house and an old red-clay tennis court. Her grandmother, Agnes Semanská, had been one of Czechoslovakia's best women players before the war. In 1962 her mother married Miroslav Navrátil, whom Martina called Mirek, and she took his surname, adding the feminine ending. Mirek cut down an old racket for her and became her first coach, and she spent her childhood hitting balls on the crumbling clay court and against the wall, as well as skiing and playing football and ice hockey with the boys. At nine she began training with the former Czech champion George Parma in Prague. She was a tomboy who was teased for being different, and the court gave her a sense of who she was. She became Czechoslovakia's national champion at fifteen, but the Communist authorities, worried that she was becoming too Westernised, restricted her travel. In 1975, at eighteen, after the US Open, she asked for asylum in the United States. She went on to win eighteen Grand Slam singles titles, including a record nine Wimbledons, and became an outspoken champion for gay rights. It all began on a crumbling clay court in Řevnice.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today