Serena Williams's injured foot, John McEnroe's foot in the mouth and the return of the king, Roger Federer, to the US Open at Flushing Meadows have dominated most of the tennis talk recently.
Away from the spotlight, two of the sport's greatest champions walked the red carpet at a theatre in New York for the screening of an ESPN documentary, fittingly titled Unmatched.
It is the story of the rivalry and friendship between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, and it brings forth the close relationship between the two.
The sight of them together, both now 53 years old, transported aficionados back in time. It was 37 years ago that they met on a tennis court for the first time, at a tournament in Akron, Ohio.
That was the start of one of the most compelling rivalries in sports; titanic clashes that brought a new audience to the game and took women's tennis from adolescence to where it stands today,
From 1973 to 1988, Navratilova and Evert played 80 times, 60 of them in finals. Bjorn Borg and McEnroe played 14 matches against each other during their epic rivalry; Rafael Nadal and Federer have faced each other 20 times.
The Navratilova-Evert numbers led Bud Collins, the tennis commentator, to bill it as the "The Rivalry of the Century."
"No doubt it is," Navratilova said at the screening. "The longevity. You got quality and quantity. Most of the time we were No 1 and No 2. It was one of a kind. It's hard to duplicate that. There never will be another Chris and Martina show. There never was another like it and there never will be another."
Evert agreed. "The beauty of our rivalry was not only we met so many times, but the contrast," she said. "We were night and day, so different in every way and brought our own set of fans to the mix. It was drama."
In 16 years of on-court competition, Navratilova and Evert met 40 times in the first eight years, with Evert having a 27-13 record. They played another 40 times in the next eight years and Navratilova had a 30-10 advantage, to finish 43-37 overall.
They traded the No 1 ranking 17 times and one or the other finished the season ranked No 1 for 12 consecutive years between 1975 and 1986. During one five-year stretch in the 1980s, they shared 18 of the 20 grand slam titles.
"No two competitors have ever competed against each other as much as Chris and Martina. It will never happen again," said Mary Carillo, a famed sports analyst.
"Which two boxers, which two anybodys are ever going to play each other 80 times over 16 years with such high quality stuff?"
arizvi@thenational.ae
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Grand slam winners since July 2003
Who has won major titles since Wimbledon 2003 when Roger Federer won his first grand slam
Roger Federer 19 (8 Wimbledon, 5 Australian Open, 5 US Open, 1 French Open)
Rafael Nadal 16 (10 French Open, 3 US Open, 2 Wimbledon, 1 Australian Open)
Novak Djokovic 12 (6 Australian Open, 3 Wimbledon, 2 US Open, 1 French Open)
Andy Murray 3 (2 Wimbledon, 1 US Open)
Stan Wawrinka 3 (1 Australian Open, 1 French Open, 1 US Open)
Andy Roddick 1 (1 US Open)
Gaston Gaudio 1 (1 French Open)
Marat Safin 1 (1 Australian Open)
Juan Martin del Potro 1 (1 US Open)
Marin Cilic 1 (1 US Open)
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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