Martina Navratilova ran away from home in 1975. She wasn't mad at her parents, she was mad at the Communist government of Czechoslovakia that told her where and when she could play tennis. She became one of the greatest women's tennis players in history and won more tournaments than any player, male or female. In 1986 Navratilova returned to Czechoslovakia and was given a hero's welcome by the country she was forced to leave behind. Now retired, the great champion is still involved in the game she loves.

Martina Navratilova was born October 10, 1956, in Prague, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic). Her stepfather, Miroslav, was an economic advisor in a factory, and her mother, Jana, was an office worker. Navratilova was part of a tennis-playing family. Her grandmother, Agnes Semanska, was the number-two ranked women's tennis player in Czechoslovakia before World War II and her parents were tennis administrators for the Czechoslovakian...