Tennis in Y2K? No Novotna

“Winning Wimbledon and becoming a Grand Slam champion is the greatest thing ever, but don’t forget tennis pretty much gave me everything, gave me the opportunity to travel, to speak another language, just to be a different kind of person. That’s the one thing I will always appreciate and treasure.”

Unfortunately, an ankle injury sustained during a doubles match at the French Open hindered Novotna’s chances of successfully defending her most cherished title, Wimbledon. The injury also hampered her mobility at the US Open and the eighth seed was ousted by Anke Huber in the 3rd round.

The departure of Novotna follows on the heels of the sudden retirement ofsuperstar Steffi Graf last month after a career in which she won 22 Grand Slam titles. Both are 30 years old, ancient by women’s tennis standards.

For Novotna, the moment that clearly defines her career is when she finally won Wimbledon on her third trip to the finals, but tennis fans will more likely remember a notorious defeat.

In the 1993 Wimbledon final, Novotna led Graf 4-1, 40-15 in the third set, but crumbled on the verge of victory. Newspaper headlines called it the “Czech choke.”

Always emotional, Novotna ignored protocol about keeping a proper distance from the Royals and dissolved in tears on the Duchess of Kent’s shoulders during the awards ceremony.

Nowadays, Novotna can joke about the moment and even said, in jest, that she consulted the Duchess before announcing her retirement.

“Yes, I called her last night, actually,” Novotna said laughing. “She said, `don’t do it.’ I said, `I have to, but I’m still going to come because I have that little (Wimbledon) badge.”’

With thedeparture of Novotna, tennis loses one of the rare serve-and-volleyers in the women’s game.

Novotna glided her way around the world’s tennis courts in graceful fashion, achieving success not only in the singles arena with 26 career trophies, but in doubles with 84 titles.

Novotna reached the world No 2 ranking five times and reached the semi-finals of every Grand Slam event. While there was only one Grand Slam singles success to her credit in four final appearances — the 1993, 1997 and 1998 Wimbledons and 1991 Australian Open — there are 12 doubles and four mixed doubles Grand Slam trophies in her resume.

She played alongside many of the game’s great doubles players, including Helena Sukova, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Gigi Fernandez, Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis.

Novotna, who will honour her commitments through the end of the year, noted that it is a sign of the times that both Graf and she have chosen to retire and leave the game to the “younger generation.”

She readily admits that Graf,who beat her on 29 of 33 occasions, was her most troublesome opponent. “Steffi was one of the greatest players ever,” Novotna said. “As I said many times, I think she was the most complete player. I think she has brought women’s tennis to another level.”