Miguel’s Weblog

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has taken back Czech citizenship - after saying she was ashamed of her adopted homeland, the United States.

The record-breaking star fled her native Czechoslovakia more than 30 years ago to live in the US.

She told a news conference in Tokyo that she has now reassumed Czech nationality.

She said: “I lost it at the time I defected. I got it back on January 9.”

The 51-year-old former world champion said she was maintaining dual nationality and keeping her US passport.

Born in Prague, Navratilova fled to the United States in 1975 at the height of the Cold War, angering communist authorities who stripped her of her nationality.

She became a US citizen six years later.

But Navratilova said last year that while she was once ashamed about Czechoslovakia, she was now ashamed of the United States under President George Bush.

She told Czech newspaper Lidove Noviny: “The thing is that we elected Bush. That is worse! Against that, nobody chose a communist government in Czechoslovakia.”

She has courted controversy in the States by comparing Republican politicians to Eastern Bloc communists for allegedly suppressing free speech.

Czechoslovakia split in 1993 after the fall of communism into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Navratilova has said that she left home because the communist authorities refused to let her play tennis in the US, where the vast majority of tournaments were then held.

She went on to win 18 Grand Slams - nine at Wimbledon, four at the US Open, three at the Australian Open and two at Roland Garros.

She retired in 1994 but returned to play doubles in 2000, again winning several tournaments. She hung up her racket again in December 2006 after winning in mixed doubles at the US Open, the 354th tournament of her career.

She is now planning to open an academy for young tennis players in the Czech Republic.

Source: Yahoo News