Portrait
Jana Novotná
Born
2 October 1968Brno, Czechoslovakia (today Czech Republic)
Died
19 November 2017Czech Republic · aged 49
Tennis playerCzech Republic

Jana Novotná

A tennis champion remembered for both a painful Wimbledon defeat and the title she eventually won.

Jana Novotná was born in Brno in 1968. Her athletic serve-and-volley game took her to world number two in singles and number one in doubles, making her one of the leading players of the 1990s.

At Wimbledon in 1993 she led Steffi Graf in the deciding set before losing the final. Her tears on the Duchess of Kent’s shoulder became a widely shared image of sporting disappointment. Five years later she returned to win the singles title, a victory that gave the earlier scene a different ending.

Novotná’s record extended far beyond that story: twelve Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, four in mixed doubles and three Olympic medals. She also won the WTA Finals in 1997. After retiring she remained involved in tennis as a coach and commentator, sharing the knowledge behind her attacking style of play.

She kept much of her private life outside public attention. Her partner was the former Polish player Iwona Kuczyńska, whom the WTA named among those surviving her. Novotná died of cancer in the Czech Republic in 2017, aged 49.

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