Martina Navratilova, Hitting Her Stride.

by Jackie Schneider Photos by Cass Bird A young man draped his hand on Martina Navratilova’s shoulder and firmly kissed her cheek. The brims of their black caps touched. Her narrow eyes softened, her mouth open in a smile. She and Bob Bryan clutched a giant silver trophy. They’d just won the mixed doubles finals match at the U.S. Open. It was the 178th and final title of her career.

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Weeks later, the day before her fiftieth birthday, Martina Navratilova joined Billie Jean King and about two dozen of the country’s best female athletes to be inducted into The Billie Jean King International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. King warmly thanked Navratilova for helping her win a doubles tournament decades ago. Among the women in tailored pantsuits and button-down blouses, Navratilova sat in an audience that applauded her. To her right was a giant photo of her on the tennis court, ready to attack an incoming shot. Navratilova looked worn out after the ceremony. While answering her phone, she simultaneously signed an autograph and poked a forkful of spiral pasta into her mouth, the first thing she’d had to eat in hours. For someone about to celebrate both retirement and a birthday, Navratilova has been working hard. She’d driven, from Florida to New York for this event, with her partner and four of her 15 dogs.

On a press circuit, Navratilova has been promoting the Rainbow Card—a VISA card that donates a portion of people’s credit transactions to LGBT organizations—as well as a new fitness book, Shape Your Self. She was looking forward to the coming birthday dinner, a celebration that marks a new beginning and a few moments to breathe. They were to eat Thai, but she wasn’t sure where. “I don’t know who will be there,” she said. “It’s in my honey’s hands.” In her retirement, Navratilova will carry on some of the missions she began decades ago.

Though she’s won more singles matches than any other player, female or male, she is more than a prolific athlete. She has shaped her career through a balance of both entrepreneurial and ethical goals. Most importantly, having grabbed the torch from King, she helped pioneer the fight for women and lesbians to have a place