Champion back with a bang

Martina Navratilova (left) won nine singles championships

M de Swardt (Rsa) and M Navratilova (USA) bt L Bacheva (Bul) and A Hopmans (Ned) 6-3 6-7(4-7) 6-3

Martina Navratilova made a winning start to her emotional Wimbledon return on Wednesday.

The legendary 43-year-old won her opening doubles match with South African Mariaan de Swardt 6-3 6-7 6-3 against Lubomira Bacheva of Bulgaria and Amanda Hopmans of Holland.

But Navratilova insisted she was not making a comeback in order to try and equal Billie Jean King's record of 20 Wimbledon titles.

I never said I would not play doubles again

Martina Navratilova

She currently has 19 among an incredible total of 167 singles and 164 doubles titles, 56 grand slam championships, 18 of them in singles including those most treasured nine at the All England Club.

"I did not come out of retirement," said Navratilova. "I just didn't play here for four years, I've been playing team tennis. I never said I would not play doubles again.

"The first time I thought about 20 titles was when I read about it in the newspaper. If I had been concerned about breaking the record I would have played doubles and mixed doubles here the last four years.

"I came out here to play one more time but I may play again, I may not.

"It was fantastic to go out there. I've been waiting for this for a couple of months and then suddenly we had 15 minutes to get out there, which was just as well because there was no time to get nervous.

I'd love to play on centre or number one but we have to earn it

Martina Navratilova

"Once you get out there you can bask in the applause for 30 seconds and then you have to play a match."

Navratilova had to play on the unaccustomed surroundings of court 18 when her match was rescheduled from court one due to earlier matches running late.

But she was not offended.

"It was nice to be scheduled on court one but I would just as soon have played on one of the outside courts and try and get a couple of wins under our belt," she said.

"I'd love to play on centre or number one but we have to earn it."