Almost certainly the greatest female tennis player of all time, Navratilova was born in Prague on October 18th 1956.

She defected from Czechoslovakia to the United States in 1975 and became an American citizen six years later.

The winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles, half of those came at Wimbledon, where she was unbeatable from 1982-87. She also captured an all-time record of 31 Grand Slam doubles and 10 mixed crowns.

Navratilova opened her Grand Slam singles account at Wimbledon in 1978 and retained the famous silver plate the following year, beating Chris Evert in the final both times.

Evert was her opponent for 10 of Navratilova's first 13 Grand Slam final victories and while the duo were great rivals, they also became good friends.

Three Australian Opens, two French Opens and four US Opens also came Navratilova's way, but grass was always her most effective surface.

She was at her peak in the mid-1980s and reached 11 consecutive Grand Slam finals between 1985 and 1987, winning six of them.

However, Steffi Graf arrived on the scene towards the end of that run and her emergence ended Navratilova's domination of women's tennis.

Graf beat Navratilova, who was now in her 30s, in four Grand Slam showdowns between 1987 and 1989, but that was not the end of Martina's time at the top level, for she won Wimbledon for the ninth time in 1990.

There was even one more final appearance, in 1994, and she made a brief singles comeback at the All England Club in 2004 at the age of 47, winning her first match. She also continued to play doubles until 2006.