Jana Novotná

• Born: October 2, 1968
• Birthplace: Brno, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic)
• Died: November 19, 2017
• Place of death: Czech Republic

Sport: Tennis

Early Life

Jana Novotná was born October 2, 1968, in Brno, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic). When Novotná was still a youngster, she was absorbed into the Soviet-influenced, state-sponsored tennis program centered in Přerov, in the region of Moravia. Under the guidelines of the program, experienced coaches visited primary schools to select athletically gifted boys and girls. The most talented children began play with wooden rackets while learning fundamentals. Then, they perfected their techniques before progressing to competition at organized national events staged throughout the country. Novotná was one of those chosen children, and she was groomed at the youth training center and at the top-level sports center. At each facility, she strengthened her playing skills and gained conditioning through a rigorous athletic regimen that included considerable indoor tennis playing, swimming, hiking, skiing, and other vigorous physical exercise.

The Road to Excellence

A seasoned international competitor from the age of fourteen, Novotná had grown to a solid, athletic 5 feet 9 inches and was well prepared to turn professional in 1986. During the early years of her professional career, she gained a reputation as a dynamic serve-and-volley player and was better known for her prowess in doubles matches than as a singles player.

However, playing on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit, Novotná gained her first triumphs in singles tournaments, winning in Chicago and Italy in 1986. Those represented her only singles victories for several years, as she concentrated on her doubles game. In 1987, the year she joined the Czech Federation Cup team—with which she played from 1987 to 1993 and from 1995 to 1998, helping her team win the tournament in the latter year—she partnered with German Claudia Kohde-Kilsch to win her first significant doubles tournament in Hamburg, Germany. Later that year, she teamed with Frenchwoman Catherine Suire to win doubles titles in Strasbourg, France, and San Diego, California. Over her career, Novotná played with doubles partners from around the globe, including Denmark, Puerto Rico, Ukraine, Spain, the United States, the Netherlands, South Africa, Russia, and Canada. She achieved most of her success with Czechs Helena Suková and Martina Hingis and with Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. In 1988, she won a silver medal in doubles tennis at the Summer Olympics and was poised to make a lasting mark in women’s tennis.

The Emerging Champion

In 1989, teaming with Suková, Novotná won her first Grand Slam title, taking the women’s doubles championship at Wimbledon. With the same partner, she captured six doubles crowns that year on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. The following year was even better, as the Novotná-Suková pairing produced nine tour victories, including Grand Slam wins at the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.

Novotná, meanwhile, under the tutorship of fellow Czech Hana Mandliková, a four-time Grand Slam singles champion, was greatly improving her solo game. In 1991, she reached her first Grand Slam singles final at the Australian Open but lost to Monica Seles in three sets. Two years later, she was ready to try again, reaching the women’s singles final at Wimbledon. Facing off against Steffi Graf, Novotná played well enough to gain a seemingly insurmountable lead in the third and final set. However, her nerves affected her: She lost five consecutive games and the title to Graf. At the award ceremony, she burst into tears, heartbroken at her failure.

Novotná continued to perform well in WTA singles and doubles tournaments and in other venues. She won doubles championships at the 1994 U.S. Open, the 1995 Australian Open, and 1995 Wimbledon with Sanchez-Vicario. She paired with Lindsay Davenport to win the 1997 U.S. Open. She earned a bronze medal in singles and a silver medal in doubles at the 1996 Olympics. However, she did not reach a Grand Slam singles final again until 1997. Once more she failed, losing to Hingis. Novotná bounced back to capture the WTA Tour singles championship and ended the year ranked number two in the world in singles.

Continuing the Story

The year 1998 was one of Novotná’s best. After reaching the finals or semifinals in Grand Slam singles events without success five previous times, she played into the finals at Wimbledon once again. She handily beat Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, topped Hingis in the semifinals, and beat Nathalie Tauziat in straight sets to claim the women’s singles championship. At the age of twenty-nine, she became the oldest first-time Grand Slam singles winner during the open era. That year, she also took doubles titles at Wimbledon, the French Open, and the U.S. Open.

At the end of the 1999 season, Novotná retired from professional tennis. She had won a total of one hundred titles, twenty-four in singles and seventy-six in doubles—including twelve Grand Slam doubles championships—on all four surfaces: hard, clay, carpet, and grass. During her twelve-year career, she was ranked the number-one doubles player in the world eleven times and amassed more than $11.2 million in prize money. She compiled a 571–225 record as a singles player and a 697–153 record as a doubles player. One of the few openly lesbian players on the WTA circuit during her career, Novotná was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005. The following year, she gained American citizenship.

Novotná, who began living in Highland Beach, Florida, in the mid-1990s, continued to play tennis for charitable events. She appeared in the 2008 Liverpool Tennis Tournament and the 2008 World Team Tennis Smash Hits event, which benefited the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund. In 2010 she moved back to her native Czech Republic, settling outside Brno with her partner, former tennis player Iwona Kuczyńska. She died of cancer in 2017 at the age of forty-nine.

Summary

One of the best women’s singles and doubles players in the world between the late 1980s and late 1990s, Jana Novotná captured one hundred titles during a twelve-year professional career, including thirteen Grand Slam events. Winner of more than $11 million in prize money, the hard-serving Jana triumphed at four Wimbledon, two Australian Open, three French Open, and three U.S. Open doubles championships, and won the 1998 Wimbledon singles title.

Bibliography

Conner, Floyd. Tennis’s Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of Baseline Blunders, Clay Court Wonders, and Lucky Lobs. Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, 2002.

"Jana Novotná." International Tennis Hall of Fame, www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/inductees/jana-novotna/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018.

Miller, Toby. Sportsex. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.

Moran, Greg. Tennis beyond Big Shots. Austin, Tex.: Mansion Grove House, 2006.

Rao, Prashant S., and Alan Cowell. "Jana Novotna, Czech Winner of Wimbledon, Dies at 49." The New York Times, 20 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/obituaries/jana-novotna-dead.html. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018.