Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A tennis player with an unparalleled career, defected from Czechoslovakia at 18, won 59 Grand Slam titles including one just before her 50th birthday.
On the island
Eight records
Well, it's happy music. The song came out when I was in the beginning of my relationship and it was pretty rocky at the beginning, so it kind of um you know resonated with me for that reason. But I think it's a fantastic song, regardless of the words.
I read her biography a few years ago, well, a few decades ago now. She just seems such a passionate personality and and she was. And I read her book and I I cried because she had such a sad, sad life on a personal level.
First time I I started travelling was about 71, 72 when I started going out west. It was a junior tournament and my my friend and teammate Reyna Tatomanova had ABBA C D or C D um tape back then of course. So you felt very international and very made me feel grown up, like we belong because we we were cool with the music that was going on out west.
I actually um arranged um tickets for my mother to see Pavarotti at the Met in New York and she had a picture taken with him, signed. He was her hero. So I think this is a tribute to my mom.
And you say I picked strong women and divas but uh divas in the good sense of the word of uh being amazing singers. And the song is um Love is Here to Stay. I mean uh when all else fails, love will be around.
I love both of their voices. I think I have every song that Katie Lang ever sang, and Roy Orbison voice of an angel. And so the two of them coming together with a very emotional song is about as good as it gets.
VltavaFavourite
Well, there is the Czech one, Smetana Mavlast, and it's Vltava, which is the river that I grew up on, Beronka, flows into the Vlotava, which then flows into the Elbe, which then flows into the Atlantic. So it's kind of a continuation of life.
Well, the last Maria Carlos, I couldn't just do one song of of Maria Carlas, I had to do two, and uh this is a beautiful Puccini uh opera, Madam Butterfly. It's just uh it's sad, but it's uh at the same time just kind of give you a sense of spirit and hope.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:35How old were you when your father told you that you would one day win Wimbledon?
Well, I think it was around seven, eight, nine, you know, uh maybe eight, nine,'cause I really didn't have a beforehand until I was seven,'cause I was too little. I played with a my grandmother's racket and it was too big to hold with one hand, so I had to just hit two hundred backhands. And when I could finally hold it with one hand, that's when I we got on the court. But I mean, the passion was always there. But uh I think my father realized that I was amazingly uh gifted.
Presenter asks
2:09What were you thinking at the moment of your first Wimbledon win in 1978?
Of course it was never about the money. It was nice, but it was all about winning that title. And on that first moment when you won, wh where were your parents? Well my family couldn't be with me because I defected in 1975 and my family couldn't travel to me. I couldn't well I could travel to them but I would never get out again so that was not an option. And at the time I didn't even know if my parents were able to see it on T V. As it turned out they did watch it on German T V.
Presenter asks
9:36What are your earliest memories of life at home [in Czechoslovakia]?
I was on in the mountains. I grew up in the Kirkonisha mountains because my father was a keeper on a lodge. And so my mom was there with him. And then my parents divorced. I was about three and a half, four years old. So I remember my first memories are on skis and in the lodge, cutting my hair with a friend.
The keepsakes
The book
Ayn Rand
Although I don't agree with all of the philosophy of Ayn Rand, doing one's best is what's been my motto in in life, although I think I'm a lot more charitable than Ayn Rand would have you be. It's about, again, the human spirit and doing what you feel is right and not giving in to the masses and uh finding your own path.
The luxury
I think I would take the same thing I took to uh I'm a Celebrate Get Me Out of Here, which is my pillow. So at least my head hits the same spot every night and it's a pillow that my mom made for me years ago.
Presenter asks
18:18How did the defection and not seeing your parents for years affect you at the time?
I think it affected them more than me, because I was kind of in control of what I was doing. I was doing what I wanted to do. But uh you're at that age where you're ready for the world. You know, I was eighteen, nineteen years old. You go to college and if you don't see your parents for a year, it's not a big deal. Except it was in that big I couldn't go back. It was difficult.
Presenter asks
29:17Why did you decide to be public about your breast cancer diagnosis?
That was one of the bravest things I did, not knowing that it would turn out that way, because well, I'm not very good at pretending, and I was keeping it quiet before I had the surgery. But afterwards, I realized how much difference I could make in women's lives by speaking out about having those mammograms, because I skipped four years. I did not realize I skipped four years, but I skipped four years.
“And that's what I'll never forgive the Communists for, that you destroyed so many lives. You can never get those years back.”
“I was competitive with myself all the time.”
“I left a communist country and defected. That's controversial. And then being gay again through no doing of my own, I'm controversial by just being. So that's the cards that I [have].”