Martina Navratilova is celebrating possibly her best ever result at the US Open after proposing to her Russian girlfriend during a break in play at Flushing Meadows.
The 57-year-old tennis legend got down on one knee between yesterday’s two men’s semifinals - and got a ‘yes’ from Julia Lemigova, her partner of six years.
“I have been waiting for the right time to ask Julia to marry me. I thought this was the right place and the right time to pop the question and thankfully I got a ‘yes’,” she said.
“It was like an out-of-body experience because you see people propose at sporting events before. You watch it in movies and in real life, and here it was happening to me. It was pretty cool.”
Ms Navratilova defected to the United States from her native Czechslovakia at the age of 18 in 1975. She won the first of her 18 grand slam singles titles at Wimbledon in 1978, and got American citizenship in 1981.
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She won the US Open four times between 1983 and 1987.
Ms Lemigova, 42, is a businesswoman and former beauty queen who was the last person to hold the title of Miss USSR.
Ms Navratilova said that the couple plan to get married in Florida, where they live. A US federal judge ruled the state’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional earlier this year.