Martina Navratilova is in Birmingham this weekend and she gave a quick presser to talk, well, about anything and everything. She thinks the grass season should be longer, suggested we bring a jacket to Wimbledon, compared herself to a dolphin (75% play, 25% looking for food) and said that the charity actually got more money because she made headlines for not making up that damn mountain. "It's just like when I was playing. I got more headlines if I lost then if I won. Backhanded compliment, I guess."
Here are her thoughts on the Wimbledon fields:
"I have no idea you know. It's wide open. On the men's side you have to look the top four. I don't see body, maybe Soderling, though he hasn't played that well this year, so the top four are the heavy favorites. Murray more so now because he did so well on the clay, Djokovic is playing the best he's played in his career, Federer played the best French he's played but a lot of that is because of the balls. Basically, with these balls on grass I'd pick Federer for sure. The balls they play with now, from what I understood, are pretty heavy, the players were struggling, which will help Nadal tremendously, I think Djokovic will be ok, I think it'll hurt Roger. But Roger's played some of his best tennis at Roland Garros. So it will be exciting on the men's side.
On the women's side, if Li Na can cope with all of the attention that I'm sure she's getting now she's got a good shot at it. And she does well on grass. She won here last year and her game transfers well on every surface. Maria Sharapova now, I think she's the betting favorite. She'll be ready. She loves the grass and she'll be pretty confident after the French.
The Williams Sisters, it's such an unknown. They could be in the final or they could go out in the second round because they haven't played. If Serena wins, is it because she's that good or is it because the rest of the field of women's tennis is not so good. I think it would be a little bit of both. We'll see how she's hitting the ball when she comes out. She's playing Eastbourne. But it's like betting on a horse that you haven't seen run yet. She's a triple crown winner. She'd be a favorite no matter what. Am I going to get in trouble that I compared Serena to a horse? She's a thoroughbred that's for sure."
She was awesome. It reminded me of when BJK gave a presser at Stanford last year. Two women who are just so comfortable in their own skin and are willing to talk about anything and everything. Great stuff.
(Pic: Getty)
