Forty years later, Navratilova recalls her first win at Wimbledon. No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki ungracious in defeat.

Martina Navratilova’s voice was rising, inching higher and more animated with each word, each thought. She apologized for sounding so emotional, but she could not help herself.

“What’s happening at those detention centers in Texas is unconscionable, just beyond belief,” said Navratilova, the top-ranked woman in tennis for much of the 1970s and ’80s. “All these people who are lying through their teeth, saying, ‘The kids are OK — it’s like summer camp.’ I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’

“We complain about Boko Haram taking the girls in Nigeria, and here we are doing it to these women and men. And the kids are marked for life. Some will never be reunited. Some parents will never know what happened to their kid.”

Navratilova’s concern about families being separated is borne of personal experience. After fleeing communist Czechoslovakia at 18 to seek political asylum in the United States during the 1975 U.S. Open, Navratilova went nearly four years without seeing a member of her own family. She has said it was the most painful time in her life.

On July 7, 1978, Navratilova won the first of her record nine Wimbledon singles titles, kick-starting a career that would include 18 Grand Slam singles championships.

“I was so happy, but it was bittersweet because my parents weren’t there and I didn’t even know if they were going to be able to see the match,” said Navratilova, who is tied with Billie Jean King with a record 20 Wimbledon titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. “That’s when you put the blinders on and just keep going. It was all very emotional, but you don’t dwell on it because, if you do, you can’t play.”

“I found out after the match that they drove to Pilsen, on the German border, and watched on TV,” she added. “And somehow, my dad called me in the locker room, which was so difficult back then. I never asked him, ‘Wait, how did you get the number?’ ”

Navratilova played her first Wimbledon as a 16-year-old in 1973 and won the women’s doubles event in 1976 with her good friend Chris Evert. Two years later, Navratilova reached her first final there — against Evert.

Navratilova had beaten Evert in the final of a warmup event in Eastbourne, England, 9-7 in the third set, claiming only her fourth victory in their 24 career meetings up to that point. Her fifth would come in the form of a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 win at the All-England Club.

Forty years later, Navratilova, now 61, recalls the details, big and small.

“I served it out at love, but I just remember my heartbeat,” said Navratilova, who played, and won, her last Wimbledon match, the mixed doubles final with Leander Paes, at age 46 in 2003. “I’ve never heard my heart beat like that before. It was so loud, but I wasn’t out of breath. It was like an out-of-body experience. I felt like the whole stadium could hear my heart beating.”