Game. Set. Match.
There have been many famous rivalries in professional sports history but if you’re a tennis fan the one which stands head and shoulders above them all is the years long competition between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. To say that their matches were legendary would be a massive understatement. These two players dominated pro tennis during the 70s and 80s and their rivalry not only helped pave the way for legions of young female players yet to come but it also helped put women’s tennis in the international spotlight and increased public interest in both the sport of tennis as well as women’s sports as a whole.
Directed by Rebecca Gitlitz, Chris & Martina: The Final Set utilizes a mix of personal photos, home movies, news footage, and old interviews, including clips from The Dinah Shore Show and Evert’s 1989 appearance on Saturday Night Live, in order to illustrate the complex, at times strained, but always engaging history between these two professional athletes. As Gitlitz weaves in and out of the past, she provides a multilayered portrait of two fiercely competitive women determined to rise to the top of the tennis world. The documentary not only serves to shed light on the complexities of their careers, but it also pulls back each athlete’s public persona in order to reveal them as multidimensional individuals whose unique friendship has withstood the test of victories, defeats, heartbreak, and sickness.
All too often fans and the media put pro athletes on a pedestal as if money, fame, and talent make them immune to the slings and arrows suffered by ordinary people. This documentary illustrates that regardless of professional success or how many Grand Slams you’ve won no one is immune from pain, loss, loneliness, disappointment, and the challenges of getting older. An obvious example of this is during the course of the film both women speak about their past romantic relationships. In a particularly candid moment Evert discusses her divorce from British tennis player John Lloyd noting that “Everything comes with a price and I wanted to win.” In turn Navratilova discusses the controversies she faced when she publicly came out and her relationship with basketball player Nancy Lieberman as well as other women (admitting with a sly smile that she had lots of girlfriends).
Chris & Martina: The Final Set features candid one on one interviews with an array of family members as well as former pro tennis players including Pam Shriver, John McEnroe, and Billie Jean King. Without a doubt, however, the most heartfelt, telling, and touching scenes in this emotional documentary take place during a visit Martina makes to Chris’s home when the two cancer survivors discuss their on court battles complete with personal insights and nostalgic recollections of past matches. Seeing these retired superstars casually sitting together on the couch watching some of their most famous tennis matches is a testament not only to true sportsmanship but also to the strength and resilience of the tried-and-true authentic friendship they have forged over the years. These scenes, like those documenting each woman’s grueling cancer treatments, pull at the heart strings as these once mighty tennis warriors transcend their status as legendary athletes, brush aside their public masks, and reveal the raw, vulnerable women behind the icons.
The documentary portrays the women at particularly pivotal points in their lives; where their battles on the court have been replaced by their individual fights against the devastating disease of cancer. As Navratilova notes, “It’s a strange feeling for an athlete to not be in control.” Some of the most poignant moments in the film involve Evert bravely facing her second cancer diagnosis and treatment all the while discussing a family history which tragically includes losing her sister to the disease. The grit and determination each woman displays during their battles against cancer are indicative of the same grit and determination each showed repeatedly throughout their legendary careers.
Chris & Martina: The Final Set is an intimate documentary exploring the parallel careers, on and off the court friendship, retirement, and medical challenges faced by two tennis icons. The rivalry between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova not only inspired and encouraged more women to pick up a racket and start playing the beautiful game of tennis but their popularity and prowess on the court also served as an inspiration for women everywhere to pursue athletics on a professional basis. The documentary Chris & Martina: The Final Set gives fans a candid and deeply revealing behind the scenes look at the personal challenges faced by each woman all the while illustrating how much pro athletes have to sacrifice for their sport and the steep price they pay in order to earn a place in sports history.
Chris & Martina: The Final Set is on Netflix now.
