Hana Mandlikova battles Martina Navratilova - 1985 Madison Square Garden SF 

@timothy chung yes, they did.

mbblover AYup.

Miles Montemore She did. I think I remember a description like she takes munchkin steps but just always seems to be there, now her decision making shot was another story. She was just so languid with her stroke production, it looked sometimes like she wasn't trying.

Indeed....and one player who many times was able to neutralise Hana’s natural talent and flair was Chris Evert with her calm focused discipline and consistency.

Any footage of Hana dancing ?

Yes, she reminds me Martina Hingis, who is for me the logical "female Federer", despite her short career.

Loved her for her sheer potential too, but the head game!! She needed a special trainer but it was a beauty to see her on the court.

I believe she was the most talented woman player ever.

Not Federer maybe Henin.

She's the past equivalent of Kvitova, although Kvitova is a tad more consistent

Very true, very true. Wished I had seen her win more often!!

@@anthonymos185 Two completely different players. Respectfully disagree.

@@LordStanley94 agreed. very different players and circumstances.

It was 85; I remember watching this match live.

snifferdogx you remember wrong. it was 1984.

Nope, '85. I watched it live, and Martina didn't start wearing glasses until '85. Sorry bud.

its the march 1985 championships at the garden

Hana won the US Open in late 1985 with shorter hair, no bandana, and a trademark yellow Reebok outfit. This was pretty much her look after that. She would not have grown her hair back this much before the end of 1985. This match was sometime before the 1985 US Open, not the end of the year 1985.

nbc only broadcast part of the match. I had it on beta. 3rd set action featuring hanas meltdown after an atrocious outcall while being up a break.

AGREED!

This match was played in March 1985, so Graf would've still only been 15 years old as she turned 16 on June 14.

Geez this Navratilova Hanna mandlikova was always an intense battle of the Czechs.

flo cle I largely agree. Similar with the men.... progress.... uggghhh....

+flo cle Agree with everything you've said. This was the golden age of women's tennis for sure. Great variety in the top players, unlike today. Now days I might tune in for a GS final, but other than that, not really that interesting to watch the Big Babe tennis of today.

Christopher King By and large, tennis has made a huge reverse development since the racket revolution of the 1980's. Players were no longer forced to master all aspects of the game and become complete players in order to win, so most of them didn't. There are a few exceptions (Federer), but on the whole today's level of play is pretty sad to watch.

Nope. Martina didn’t know at the time her eyesight was getting bad. After getting prescription glasses she went on and continued her dominance ending 1985 and 1986 as number one. And though she’d lose the number one ranking to Graf by the end of 1987 Martina still won Wimbledon and US Open that year and was runner up at the Australian and French.

timothy chung I think it was in 1985 that she shared the number 1 with Chris. Right after Chris won the French Chris became number 1. They were actually co-seeded as number 1 at the 1985 Wimbledon. It was the Australian Open at the end of the year that would decide the year end number 1. Martina best Chris in that Australian final and thus, ended 1985 as number 1. It was during the fall of 1986 that Martina was starting to feel burnout (though she didn’t realize at first that she was experiencing burnout). She wanted to find out what tournaments she could skip in 1987 and still be number 1. The beginning of 1987 was indicative of her burnout - she lost like 7 or more finals in a row. Her first title was Wimbledon 1987 while her second one was the US Open of 1987. She was still number 1 after that triumphant US Open. But because of Graf’s many titles and great results in the slams of that year, she was not that much farther from number 1. Martina needed to win the year end Virginia Slims tournament in New York and beat Graf to end 1987 as number 1. But she couldn’t overcome the task that she lost to Sabatini in the first round. And from that point onwards, Martina didn’t reach the number 1 ranking anymore. Graf became number 1 for good until the Spring of 1991 when Seles became number 1. Martina had knee surgery in the fall of 1990 thereby skipping the Fall indoor circuit.

Eh? Did you actually bother to watch the video? It shows Martina winning plenty of points, including 7 consecutive points from 04:25

Christopher King I see your point, and certainly it's not possible versus Serena or Pliskova's serves, for example. But a lot of the ladies today still have pretty underwhelming serves, so more creative play should be possible. Particularly given the improvement in racquets etc. I'm just not sure the talent is there in today's game frankly.

Everyone was able to switch to the graphite racket back then, not just Martina. What made her dominant was her training and raw talent.

She didn't get the glasses until 1985. She had a win streak with her new spectacles until she lost the French Open in June 1985.

Hana is a lesbian too in case you didn’t know.

+Victor Dykes - Fakolujo These 2 hit as hard as any woman could in 1985. You wouldn't say what you did if it's 1985 now.