Gods of Tennis

Hello.

I mean, Chrissy, um, she was just in a different league.

She looked a million dollars, everyone fell in love with her.

Howard: It was really the first crossover female tennis player into kind of a cultural icon.

Narrator: Raised in a tennis-obsessed family, Chris Evert's talent quickly secured a spot at the top.

Sue Barker: To get to the semifinal in your first Wimbledon as a teenager, I mean, she was just so awesome.

So all the attention is going to focus on the women, and in particular, on the American from Florida, Chris Evert.

Is there anybody anywhere else you'd rather be except Chris Evert?

[Chuckling] No, I don't think so.

Margolyes: She was the American girly dream.

Narrator: By 1978, 23-year-old Evert had already won two Wimbledon titles.

Announcer: Game, set-- no, it was just out.

Miss Evert goes into the final.

[Applause] Narrator: And having cruised to victory against reigning champion Virginia Wade in the semis, all bets were on her to win the upcoming clash with Martina Navratilova.

Howard: Chrissy was famous for little velvet shivs.

She would shake hands with somebody, but she might say something like, "I see you've been working on your backhand.

Hmm."

[Laughing] And that's all she'd say.

Man: If people would sort of talk about beating you, you'd go, "Enjoy it 'cause it won't last" or something like that.

I never said that!

Ha ha ha ha!

Woman: Chrissy was this beautiful young lady who spoke well, and now she had this contrasting player who was a jock, basically.

Evert: She had a big lefty serve, she had a big forehand, she had power, and I remember thinking at that time, "Oh, this girl is dangerous."

[Crowd whistling] Announcer: And so, everything is set here for what should be a really outstanding final.

The Royal Box holds the Duchess of Kent and Princess Margaret.

[Applause] Narrator: Evert and Navratilova had faced each other before, with Evert winning 20 of their 25 showdowns.

Announcer: So this much-awaited final between the American Chris Evert and the Czech Martina Navratilova.

Howard: Martina was not favored to win the '78 Wimbledon final.

Martina had not really mastered the self-control that Chris had.

Austin: There was a huge contrast in styles.

You could see that Chrissy was clean ball-striker, consistent, accurate, precise, didn't give you many free points, didn't show much emotion.

Announcer: And you can number the losses of this young lady on the fingers of one hand.

Then you had this young Czech, who was emotional on court and showed her elation, showed her despair, was a lefty, a serve-and-volleyer, a shot-maker.

Announcer: A left-hander of tremendous power, and the only flaw is her temperament.

Austin: The fact that they were so completely opposite in their styles of play made it intriguing.

Official: First set.

Play.