The Queen is back

Everything looks okay for Navratilova

BBC Sport Online's Gabrielle Lewis reports on Martina Navratilova's quest for a 20th Wimbledon title.

The Queen has returned to entertain her court. It was not perhaps the court her fans would have liked to see her on, but they were there in force nevertheless.

Martina Navratilova was who they had all come to see. She had been due to launch her campaign to equal Billie Jean King's record 20 Wimbledon titles on Court One, a stadium which had not been built when she won her 19th title in 1995.

Maybe I'll give it a whirl with McEnroe next year

Martina Navratilova

But in order to give her faithful followers what they had come to see, the All England Club shifted the match out to Court 18 when the action at the original venue overran.

So, in fading light at the end of a busy day's play, 43-year-old Navratilova and her 29-year-old doubles partner Mariaan de Swardt from South Africa relocated to the fifth show court.

For many of the crowd making their way home to watch France beat Portugal in the first Euro 2000 quarter-final, the chance to stop by Court 18 and see a legend of the game was too good to miss.

Back in the habit

And there was little doubt who the spectators filling every available vantage point were rooting for as the first round match between Navratilova and de Swardt and Lubomira Bacheva and Amanda Hopmans began.

Every point Navratilova won with her customary gritty determination and glorious shot-making was rewarded with a handshake from de Swardt and rapturous applause from the spectators.

The first set was a test. Although Navratilova and de Swardt have played together in team tennis in America for several years, but this was their first real trial on grass after their warm-up on the clay at the French Open and then in the Wimbledon warm-up event at Eastbourne.

Experience

But, after throwing away their advantage in the second set, Navratilova began to show more signs of her experience. Attempting to take a toilet-break at the start of the third set, Navratilova has to remind the umpire to send a female touchjudge with her and upon her return she and de Swardt began to take command of the match.

Even when Bacheva and Hopmans wanted to suspend proceedings due to the light, Navratilova felt the grass and appeared to explain to her opponents and the referee that the surface was still playable. The opponents acceded and a huge cheer greeted the decision to play on.

Did the queen ever leave?

Cruising to 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory, Navratilova found time to make the crowd giggle, bringing back memories of the halcyon days when personalities filled the courts.

Flashbulbs lit up the gloomy sky at the end of the match as the spectators caught the Navratilova's most recent moment of glory on the hallowed grass and grasped a signature or the towel she had thrown into the crowd.

She admitted afterwards that she may team up with another player who made his Wimbledon comeback last year and reached the final in the mixed doubles with Steffi Graf, John McEnroe.

"It didn't occur to me to ask him and he didn't ask me," she smiled. "Maybe we'll give it a whirl it next year, that would be fun."

For the moment, however, the Queen of Wimbledon is well and truly back.