Women's Tennis : 5 greatest Australian Open finals

#3 Martina Navratilova vs Chris Evert (1981)

Martina Navratilova

Two legends who each won 18 Grand Slam Singles titles each, Americans Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova faced each other 45 times during their career. Many of those encounters were well and truly memorable and it would be really difficult to pick 1 or 2 of their best matches. In mid-1980, Navratilova had acquired the citizenship of United States of America.

Evert was the No 1-ranked player in the world and the top-seed going into the tournament, but Navratilova was her biggest challenger.

After losing the first set, Navratilova clawed back in remarkable fashion, bulldozing her opponent in the second and taking a comfortable 5-1 lead in the third. But somehow Evert found a way back, playing some of her best tennis when she needed it the most and won four games in succession to level the score at 5 all. But Navratilova is no ordinary champion and Evert learnt this the hard way as Navratilova did not let the momentum swing perturb her as she took the next two games to take the match 6-7, 6-4, 7-5.