The Czech legend of tennis and former world number 2 Jana Novotna, 49, died yesterday after a serious illness, the player’s family informed the CTK agency on Monday.
After beginning her career at age eight in the junior categories, she became a professional player at age 19, winning 24 singles and 76 doubles titles throughout her career, before retiring in 1999 at the age of 31.
The Brno tennis player won a silver medal in doubles at the Seoul Olympics (1988), along with Helena Sukova, and a bronze in singles and silver in doubles in Atlanta (1996).
In 1988 she won her first Federation Cup “salad bowl”, in 1997 the Masters Tournament and in 1998 she beat the French Nathalie Tauziat in the Wimbledon final, to put the finishing touch on her sporting career.
But it was in doubles where the player obtained a good number of “Grand Slam”, almost always alongside Sukova, such as the two Australian Opens, three at Roland Garros, four Wimbledom and three Flushing Meadows.
Since 2005, Novotna has been a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Rhode Island (USA).
In one of her last interviews with Czech media, Novotna acknowledged two years ago, almost three decades after retiring, that she deeply loved the tennis.
“The tennis He gives me absolutely everything and after all these years he continues to fill me », the Czech player was sincere, who based her game on an aggressive serve-volley, a style currently in disuse.