Martina Navratilova Trivia
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55 free Martina Navratilova trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Martina Navratilova trivia quiz covers the whole career of the woman many consider the greatest all-round tennis player who ever lived. The easy questions handle the basics: where she was born, how many Wimbledons she won, the glasses, the Connors exhibition and her final major title with Bob Bryan a month before her 50th birthday. From there it moves through her Czech childhood, the 1975 defection, her first Wimbledon crown in 1978 and the fitness revolution that made her nearly unbeatable in the mid-1980s. The harder half is for tennis obsessives: the 86-1 season, the 74-match streak, the 109-match doubles run with Pam Shriver, the Chatrier 'Grand Slam' debate, the exact head-to-heads with Chris Evert and Steffi Graf, the coaches, the mystery novels and the boxed set of major titles. If you have played our tennis or Wimbledon quizzes, this is the deep dive on one champion. Every answer was checked against Navratilova's encyclopaedia entry before publishing, and the records quoted are the ones listed there.
30 of 55 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Martina Navratilova born?
Prague
Prague was only her birthplace: after her parents divorced when she was three, her mother moved the family to Řevnice, a small town just outside the city, and she grew up there.
Q 02How many Wimbledon singles titles did Navratilova win, an all-time record?
Nine
She reached the final twelve times, including nine years running from 1982 to 1990.
Q 03What did coming out in 1981 cost Navratilova?
Endorsements
Endorsements: sponsors shied away after she spoke openly about her sexuality, even as she went on to dominate women's tennis for most of the 1980s.
Q 04Born Martina Šubertová, the future champion took the surname Navratilova from whom?
Her stepfather
Her stepfather, Miroslav Navrátil, married her mother in 1962; Martina added the feminine ending -ová to his surname, which is why she became Navrátilová while he stayed Navrátil.
Q 05On which US television contest did Navratilova compete in 2012, partnered with Tony Dovolani?
Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars did not suit her: one of the most successful athletes in any sport was the very first celebrity voted off that season.
Q 06What did Navratilova win in 1972, aged 15?
Her national title
Her national title, in Czechoslovakia, made her a prodigy at home, where she had been hitting balls against a concrete wall since she was four; three years later she left for good, asking the US for asylum.
Q 07Which style of play was Navratilova's trademark throughout her career?
Serve-and-volley
Serve-and-volley was an unlikely choice for a girl raised on slow courts in Czechoslovakia, but rushing the net behind her left-handed serve set her apart from the baseliners of her era.
Q 08In 1975, aged 18, Navratilova walked into which agency's New York offices to defect from Czechoslovakia?
The immigration service
The immigration service office in Manhattan was her first stop after she lost a US Open semifinal to Chris Evert; her green card came through within a month.
Q 09Which team trophy did Navratilova win for two countries?
Federation Cup
The Federation Cup went to Czechoslovakia in 1975 with Navratilova leading the team, the same year she defected; after becoming a US citizen in 1981 she won it three more times for her new country.
Q 10Who beat Navratilova in the 1975 Australian Open final, one of her two major final losses that year?
Evonne Goolagong
Evonne Goolagong beat her 6–3, 6–2 on home grass; later that year Navratilova, still 18, asked the United States for asylum during the US Open.
Q 11Whose Wimbledon singles title record did Navratilova break in 1990?
Helen Wills Moody
Helen Wills Moody's mark had stood since 1938; Navratilova drew level in 1987, lost the next two finals, then broke it at 33.
Q 12Who beat Navratilova at Madison Square Garden in November 1994 in her farewell match as a full-time singles player?
Gabriela Sabatini
Gabriela Sabatini won their first-round match at the season-ending championships, the last stop of a year Navratilova had announced in advance and played as a farewell tour.
Q 13Which basketball player devised the fitness regime that transformed Navratilova's game in the 1980s?
Nancy Lieberman
Q 21Whom did Navratilova beat 6-3, 6-2 in the 1986 US Open final?
Helena Suková
Helena Suková was the player who had ended her 74-match winning streak two years earlier; in this final Navratilova allowed her only five games.
Q 22Navratilova's 59 major titles in all events are the most by any player except which Australian?
Margaret Court
Margaret Court is the only player ahead of her; Navratilova got that close because she kept winning doubles majors until a month before her 50th birthday.
Q 23Whom did Navratilova beat 6-4, 6-1 in the 1990 Wimbledon final, her last major singles title?
Zina Garrison
Nancy Lieberman took her on after a 6–0, 6–0 loss to Chris Evert in 1981; Evert later called that defeat the start of 'the new Martina', who won 30 of their next 40 matches.
Q 14What was Navratilova two wins from when her 74-match streak ended?
Calendar Grand Slam
A calendar-year Grand Slam needed only the Australian Open, then played in December; she arrived holding six straight major singles titles and lost in the semifinals.
Q 15With which partner did Navratilova win a record 109 straight doubles matches between 1983 and 1985?
Pam Shriver
Pam Shriver and Navratilova went more than two years unbeaten together before losing the 1985 Wimbledon final; as a team they won 20 major titles.
Q 16Which American teenager beat Navratilova in a final-set tiebreak to win the 1981 US Open?
Tracy Austin
Tracy Austin lost the first set 6–1, then took two tiebreaks for her second US Open title; back injuries all but ended her career before she turned 21.
Q 17In 2000 Navratilova was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, located in which US town?
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island, is home to the Hall; she was inducted in 2000, the very year she came out of retirement to play doubles, and went on to win three more major titles.
Q 18In April 2010 Navratilova revealed she was being treated for which illness?
Breast cancer
Breast cancer was caught early by a mammogram she had put off for four years; after a lumpectomy and radiation she urged other women not to let their own check-ups slide.
Q 19On which surface did Chris Evert hold her only winning record against Navratilova?
Clay
Clay, where Evert once won 125 matches in a row; even so, Navratilova beat her on it 6–3, 6–1 in the 1984 final in Paris.
Q 20Whom did Navratilova beat in both the 1982 Roland Garros final and the 1983 Wimbledon final?
Andrea Jaeger
Andrea Jaeger, a teenager in both finals, could not stop her; the Paris win gave Navratilova her first title there, seven years after she lost the final at 18.
Zina Garrison won only five games; Navratilova, 33, had lost the previous two Wimbledon finals and gone almost three years without a major singles title.
Q 24Navratilova played the third 'Battle of the Sexes' match in 1992 against which male star?
Jimmy Connors
Jimmy Connors, who had just turned 40, won 7–5, 6–2 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas; unlike the famous 1973 match against Bobby Riggs, this one went to the man.
Q 25Navratilova lost the 1994 Wimbledon final at age 37 to which Spanish player?
Conchita Martínez
Conchita Martínez became the first Spanish woman to win Wimbledon, yet it was the beaten Navratilova who left Centre Court to a long standing ovation.
Q 26With which Indian partner did Navratilova win 2003 mixed doubles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon?
Leander Paes
Leander Paes teamed up with her three years after she came out of retirement to play doubles; at 46 she became the oldest player ever to win a title at Wimbledon.
Q 27What 'boxed set' did Navratilova complete at the 2003 Australian Open?
Singles, doubles and mixed at all four majors
Singles, doubles and mixed at all four majors: the Australian mixed title was the one piece she lacked, and winning it at 46 made her only the third player to finish the set.
Q 28Whose record of five straight Wimbledon singles titles did Navratilova break with her sixth in a row in 1987?
Suzanne Lenglen
Suzanne Lenglen's run from 1919 to 1923 had stood for 64 years; Navratilova's own streak ended the next summer, when she lost a Wimbledon final for the first time.
Q 29With whom did Navratilova win her final major, the 2006 US Open mixed doubles, a month before turning 50?
Bob Bryan
Bob Bryan, one half of the Bryan twins, partnered her to a 59th major title; having won it, she retired from competitive play for good.
Q 30About how many singles titles did Navratilova win, an Open Era record?
About 170
About 170: her 167 titles came from winning at least one in 21 straight seasons, and no man or woman of the Open Era has won more.