Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver: Doubles Excellence
When Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver decided to become doubles partners in 1980, they became nearly unstoppable.
It was less than a year after Pam Shriver turned pro that she would form one of the most successful doubles partnerships in women’s tennis history with Martina Navratilova.
They first teamed up at the 1981 Australian Open, where they suffered the first of only three major final losses in 23 opportunities, falling to the American team of Kathy Jordan and Anne Smith, 6-2, 7-5. From 1982-1985, Shriver and Navratilova won 11 straight major titles and were only taken to a third set three times.
Photo courtesy of AP Photo / Pierre Gleizes
The two won 74 titles together – twenty of which came in major tournaments. The duo won seven straight Australian titles (1982-1989) (no Australian Open was held in 1986), five titles in six years at Wimbledon (1981-1984, 1986), as well as four titles each at both the Roland-Garros Championships (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988), and the US Open (1983, 1984, 1986, 1987).
In addition to accomplishing a career Grand Slam as a partnership several times over, they also accomplished a calendar year Grand Slam in 1984. The duo’s consummate career included a record 109 match winning streak that extended from April 1983 to July 1985. In an 11-year span from 1981 to 1992, they also won the WTA Tour Championships ten times and were named the WTA Tour Doubles Team of the Year eight straight times (1981-1988). The Shriver-Navratilova dominance of the 1980s will be remembered as a great era in tennis doubles history.