Tennis: Blog of the week: In memory of Jana Novotna

Jana Novotna died of cancer at the age of 49. However, for her courageous offensive tennis and the numerous big center court moments, the Czech will be remembered forever.

It was one of my first Wimbledon years. And it was great drama, 1993 at the Centre Court – in the duel between Steffi Graf and Jana Novotna. Even today, the scenes are still so clearly visible as if it had been last week or last month. The desperate Novotna only on the holy lawn, point by point forgiving a virtually unassailable lead yet, from 4:1 and 40:15 away in the third set of the final. And then later on, the loser Novotna, who was in tears and crying bitterly on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent, a public breakdown, a soul exposing, as one has seldom seen before and after in sports.

It was known that Novotna had to struggle with her nerves in critical situations. But on the bulky press stand in Wimbledon, but also among the almost 14,000 spectators, no one believed that Novotna would still give the title and her advantage in this final. When only five points separated Novotna from the victory, the agency reports had long since been written – sensation in Wimbledon, serial winner Graf stopped. Before it all changed.

It was painful even for German fans and reporters to see a great player of Novotna’s stature failing because of her biggest career dream – how she destroyed herself, and only herself, working towards what she had worked towards for a whole tennis life. Could it be a consolation that the sensitive Duchess whispered to the devastated Czech:”I know that one day you will win here.”

Novotna was a gambler like no longer exists today. Consistently she rushed forward after her serve, always quickly looking for the decision on the net – Serve-and-Volley tennis, which she showed in the tradition of Martina Navratilova. She competed in four Grand Slam finals, but it was not until 1998 that the great triumph was achieved, as it were the reconciliation with Wimbledon. She won against Nathalie Tauziat of France, and there was no one who had not granted her this success. Tears flowed – not only on the Centre Court, not only among the fans. But also with the Duchess of Kent, again the master of ceremonies of the final.

In 1999 Novotna stopped, the year in which Graf also ended her career. The reasons were similar to Graf’ s:”I feel tired and exhausted,”she told me in an interview back then,”the motivation is simply gone.” Every now and then, in the years following her farewell, she was seen once again in the locations of the professional circuits, but she usually lived in her Czech homeland in seclusion.

On Sunday Jana Novotna died at the age of 49. They like to say that such an old age is no age to die. And that’s true.