Evert: 'Champions are stubborn and it's not always good'

SINGAPORE - Champions are stubborn. That single-minded focus is what makes them good. Great champions have the humility and competitive fire to adapt. That's what makes them great. No one knows that better than 18-time major champion and the WTA's first World No.1, Chris Evert. 

The WSJ+WTA Tennis Legends Series events are a new partnership between the WTA and Wall Street Journal, featuring live, candid discussions throughout the year with the all-time greats of women's tennis. The series began in London this year during Wimbledon with Kim Clijsters, resumed at the US Open in New York with Billie Jean King, and culminated in Singapore this week in a conversation with Evert, who is in the Lion City for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. 

Great rivalries forge great players. For Evert, two rivalries served as pivotal moments in her illustrious career: those with Martina Navratilova and Tracy Austin.

In one of the greatest rivalries in the history of sports, Evert and Navratilova faced off 80 times in their career from 1973 to 1988, playing 60 times in finals and 14 times in major finals. Evert was the WTA's first No.1 after the advent of the computer rankings. Navratilova was the tour's third No.1. The two would collectively dominate the top spot, along with Austin and Evonne Goolagong Cawley, for the first decade of the sport.

"You're either born a natural wonderful athlete physically or mentally," Evert said at the Wall Street Journal panel. "You have one of the two. If you have both you're very lucky.

"I had to be superior mentally than my opponent because I was not the natural athlete and I did not have the power or the quickness of a Martina, or Evonne. I didn't have that so I had to compensate and I had to make up for it in other ways. I made up for it mentally. I was tough, I never gave up, I was in every point. Every point was match point to me. And emotionally I was composed out there."

Navratilova finished their rivalry with a slim advantage in their head-to-head, winning 43-37. From 1982 to 1984, Evert lost 13 consecutive matches to Navratilova, all finals, and the string of losses turned out to be a game-changing moment for Evert.

"If you're not winning you have to change your game," Evert said. "That's in business, too. If you're not winning you have to figure out a way, whether that's tweaking something or changing it. That takes a lot of courage. 

"But in saying that, I was stubborn. I lost to her 13 times in a row, in the middle of our career when she was dominating. She was No.1, she was dominating, she was unbeatable. I walked out on the court knowing I was going to lose.

"Finally, the 14th time I walked out and I kind of bluffed myself into believing I could beat her. If you don't feel, really deep down, that you're going to beat somebody, you better bluff it and think you're going to do it. If you walk out in the negative thinking you're going to lose, you're going to lose. If you think that maybe you have a chance and you bluff yourself, at least you've got a chance."

"She was just so good. I had to figure out a way so I changed something. My coach kept saying take the net away from her. My coach said to come in on her backhand side, her weakness, and make her pass you. So I thought, I gotta try this even if I'm losing. I have to try something different. 

"So I remember that 14th match was in Miami, and I tried it, and I beat her. That was a big win for me. A few months later I beat her at the French Open.

"Champions are stubborn and it's not always good. You stay with a winning game, you change a losing game.

"The two pivotal times in my career where I changed my career around, the one time was with Martina. The other time was when Tracy Austin beat me five times in a row."

Evert had been the golden girl of tennis when she burst onto the scene as a teenager. Her presence and attention showered upon her was met with resentment from many of the women who had spent years toiling away to establish women's professional tennis and the WTA. 

"I remember when I came up I was the new young fresh face and I was getting the publicity," Evert said. "In the beginning, they were not happy. That generation did all the work. They paved the way for my generation. But they were the ones that also didn't reap the benefits as much financially. They had every reason to be snippy about it. 

"But they made their feelings known to me and wouldn't really talk to me. If anybody should be upset it was Billie Jean because at that time she was No.1 in the world. But it was Billie Jean that brought them together and said, Hey, listen, she's bringing money into the game and that's going to be money in your pockets eventually."

Flash ahead to the late 70s and early 80s, and it was now Tracy Austin who had edged Evert out as the new young American talent.

"Tracy won the US Open when she was 16 and she won again when she was 18, and she was cleaning my clock," Evert said. "She was challenging Martina. She, to me, would have been the next No.1 for the next 10 years. We had the same type of game but she was younger, she was a little faster, she was more eager, she had a little less pressure and she beat me five times in a row."

Once again, having found her consistent counter-punching style wanting, Evert went back to the drawing board.

"Pam Shriver's coach came up to me the day before that sixth match and asked, 'How are you going to play Tracy?' And I said what all players say: I'm just going to play my game. 

"But what if it's not good enough? Better to play someone else's game then, right? What people don't realize and what I didn't realize is how about exposing your opponent's weakness? How about that? Even though that's not your game."

"Don Candy was Pam Shriver's coach and he just happened to say, 'You're gonna lose if you play your game because you lost the last five times you played your game.' I was known not to be an aggressive player. I was more of a counter-puncher. I remember Don said to me, 'You have to take the aggressiveness away from Tracy and you have to be aggressive every point. You have to go for winners on every point.' And I said, 'But that's not my game.' And he said, 'Well, you're going to lose then.'

"So I tried it. I lost the first set 6-4 dictating play. But I was within 1 or 2 points of winning that set. I thought, 'OK, this is worth it.' The second and third set I won 6-1, 6-1. When she served, I'd go for the winner. It was a different mentality and I knew that I had to play aggressive and that was the way I had to play. 

"That was a pivotal time. I could have just laid down and let her beat me."

More from Evert on the rivalries that defined her career:

On her rollercoaster relationship with Navratilova during their playing years:

"Martina and I, the first French Open and Wimbledon that we played in the early 70s, we didn't travel with anybody. We didn't even travel with a coach. We practiced together before we played each other in the finals. Then we had lunch together before the finals. Then we played the finals. And then we took a flight that night to the next tournament together. That was our life back then.

"Trust me, we had our ups and downs. When she got together with Nancy Liebermann and she started training and coaching Martina, she transformed her into a No.1 player. But Nancy told her not to talk to me. Nancy told her you have to hate Chrissie, because I was beating her at that time and we were very friendly. And I had coaches who said the same thing, don't get too close.

On how she developed her steely demeanor on court:

"I think I naturally was pretty introverted. That's why I marvel at Billie Jean, who supposedly at 11 years old she knew she wanted to be No.1 and she wanted to change the world. At 11 I was just getting out of playing with dolls. I was just kind of a passive personality.

"I remember my dad telling me, one time during practice I showed a little bit of temper, and he said Chrissie, don't let your opponent know how you're feeling, even if you're frustrated or upset, don't let them know because that will frustrate them. Sure enough, I kept it in from then on. I would look across the net and I would see drama happening and emotions and breaking racquets and cursing, and I would just be really steady and consistent and calm. I think it drove my opponents nuts. I think that was a good way to be."

On returning to Singapore for the WTA Finals:

"One good thing the WTA's doing is educating them. I love this tournament because they bring the Legends back. They put us to work but we love it. It ties it all together. The new generation and the old generation. We still have things to offer. Tennis is still our life even though we aren't out there competing."