Tennis ace whose loss won hearts
Jana Novotná Wimbledon champion BORN OCTOBER 2, 1968 - DIED NOVEMBER 19, 2017, AGED 49
JANA Novotná endeared herself not just to the Wimbledon crowd but to the wider world in her 1993 final against Steffi Graf, when she lost by a whisker and then wept on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent.
Nerves had got to her and she didn’t reach another Wimbledon final until 1997 when she lost again, this time to Martina Hingis. This time she masked her disappointment and pretended to run away with the silver trophy. “Don’t worry. I am sure it will be third time lucky,” said the Duchess of Kent.
It was. In 1998 Novotná defeated France’s 30-year-old Nathalie Tauziat in the final in straight sets. “What’s all the fuss about?” asked the Duchess. “I told you last year you would come back and win.”
Yet despite being one of the top female tennis players of her generation, it proved to be her only Grand Slam singles win.
Jana Novotná was born in Brno, in what was then Czechoslovakia and trained as a gymnast until the age of eight when she was told she was growing too tall to make a top-flight gymnast. So her mother Liba suggested tennis instead. She turned professional in 1987.
Novotná initially made her name playing doubles, winning 12 Grand Slams and reaching the No. 1 spot. It was after Hana Mandliková started coaching her in the early 1990s that she went on to become only the 15th woman in the Open era to win more than 500 career singles matches. In total she won 24 titles, peaking in the rankings at No. 2 in 1997, but the 1993 match was a massive disappointment.
“Steffi Graf didn’t exactly grab her fifth Wimbledon championship,” said one commentator. “Jana Novotná handed her the silver platter as a gift with one of the worst chokes in Grand Slam history.”
She was on the very verge of winning when she fluffed it. “The whole of Wimbledon gasped,” the former British No. 1 Annabel Croft said. “There was this immediate sense of ‘Oh my God, is it all going to swing on that moment?’”
It did. “I liked her enormously,” said Croft. “She was so sweet and charming but then, when we got on the court, she was completely ruthless and incredibly intense.
“She didn’t just want to win, she wanted to thrash you!” Others benefited from that competitive streak. She was a member of the Czech team that won the Federation Cup in 1998 and she was a women’s doubles silver medallist in the Olympics of 1988 and 1996 and a singles bronze medallist in 1996.
She retired in 1999 – it was said that a serious illness suffered by her father made her re-evaluate her life. She entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005 but kept up an interest in the sport and was part of the BBC’s Wimbledon commentary team just last year.
Unmarried, she died of cancer after a lengthy battle and it was fitting that among the tributes was a touching statement from the Duchess of Kent, who said: “Jana Novotná was a brave, courageous, sweet lady with a wonderful sense of humour.
“I am very saddened by the news of her death and all my feelings are with her family. Wimbledon will not be the same without her.”