There's a photograph from the 1980s that tells you almost everything about Martina Navratilova. She's mid-lunge at the net, left arm extended, face calm, legs doing something that looks more like a sprinter's start than a tennis shot. Most players of her era trained by playing more tennis. She trained like an athlete — and it changed what was possible.

The fitness revolution

When Navratilova defected from Czechoslovakia to the United States in 1975, she arrived with enormous talent and, by her own account, a body that wasn't ready to use all of it. The turning point came when she committed to proper athletic training — weights, sprint work, nutrition, rest. That was genuinely unusual for a tennis player then, especially a woman.

The logic was simple. Serve-and-volley tennis asks you to close the net again and again, match after match, set after set. Every approach means a sprint, a split-step, a volley, a recovery. Fitness wasn't a bonus; it was the fuel for the whole game plan. By building a stronger base, she could keep attacking on the final point as fiercely as the first.

Serve-volley, built from the ground up

Navratilova's game is a masterclass in cause and effect. Her left-handed serve — especially the slice swinging away from a right-hander's backhand — pulled opponents wide and gave her a short ball to attack. Then came the net.

Her volleys were compact and firm, with soft hands for the drop and a punch for the put-away. But the real weapon was her movement into the net: the first step after the serve, the balanced split-step, the low centre of gravity. She didn't just arrive at the net; she arrived in a position to hurt you. And when opponents tried to lob her, she had the athleticism to turn and chase, often replying with an overhead that ended the conversation.

That combination — lefty serve, relentless net pressure, elite movement — made her one of the most dominant players the sport has seen. Her rivalry with Chris Evert was the era's defining duel: Evert's baseline consistency against Navratilova's net-rushing pressure. Two completely different philosophies, each forcing the other to improve.

Reinventing yourself at the top

The lesson most junior players miss is that Navratilova didn't win by finding one formula and freezing it. She kept rebuilding. When age and a new generation of power hitters arrived, she adapted: sharpening her serve, changing her scheduling, and eventually becoming one of the great doubles players of all time — long after her singles peak. That doubles career wasn't a retirement lap; it was a second act built on the same foundations: fitness, net skills, and tactical intelligence.

Her longevity is the real headline. She stayed at the top across decades because she treated her body and her game as things to be maintained and upgraded, not just used up.

Take it to court

1. Train the engine, not just the shots. If your game is built on attacking, your fitness is part of your technique. A tired approach shot is a bad approach shot.

2. Build your serve and volley from the legs up. Practise the split-step and the first step into the net as deliberately as you practise the volley itself. Arriving balanced is half the point.

3. Reinvent, don't rust. Every so often, ask what part of your game is now a weakness because the game around you has changed. Navratilova's greatness wasn't one style — it was the willingness to keep rebuilding it.