Tennis legend Martina Navratilova said Tuesday she has regained Czech nationality more than 30 years after fleeing communism in the country of her birth to live in the United States. "I lost it at the time I defected. I got it back on January 9," Navratilova told a news conference on a visit to Tokyo.
The 51-year-old former world champion said she was maintaining dual nationality and keeping her US passport. Born in Prague, Navratilova fled to the United States in 1975 at the height of the Cold War, angering communist authorities who stripped her of her nationality. She became a US citizen six years later.
But Navratilova said last year that while she was once ashamed about Czechoslovakia, she was now ashamed of the United States under President George W. Bush. Navratilova has said that she left home because authorities refused to let her play tennis in the United States, where the vast majority of tournaments were then held.
She went on to become one of the greatest stars that the sport has ever seen, winning 18 Grand Slams - nine at Wimbledon, four at the US Open, three at the Australian Open and two at Roland Garros. She retired in 1994 but returned to play doubles in 2000, again winning several tournaments. She definitively hung up her racket in December 2006 after winning in mixed doubles at the US Open, the 354th tournament of her career.