Martina Navratilova’s Fort Worth restaurant of choice: “Joe T. Garcias”

Martina Navratilova has the distinction of being one of the greatest to ever play her sport, and having called Fort Worth her home.

Fort Worth, Texas doesn’t have many of those.

This is Van Cliburn, Ben Hogan, John Denver, Bill Paxton, Willie Nelson territory; they all lived in Fort Worth, for a lot longer than Martina.

Her Fort Worth residency in the 1980s is an obscure detail about her life, and career, that understandably is lost, or forgotten, when discussing her encyclopedia set of achievements.

The WTA Finals begins this week at Dickies Arena; the event will run from Oct. 31 through Nov. 7. It will bring the top singles and doubles women’s players in the world to Fort Worth, as well Martina back “home.”

“I can’t remember (the last time she came back); it’s been a long time,” she said in a recent interview. “I was in Dallas a few times, in fact a couple of months ago, but Fort Worth specifically it’s been decades.”

Fort Worth has changed just a bit since she was last here.

“Exactly, welcome to the Big F now, for real, right?” she said. “I’m sure the skyline is quite different from when I lived there. Everything was off Hulen (Avenue), so I don’t know if that’s still the case. I lived off Shady Oaks.

“So, I’m looking forward to see how the city has grown. That arena didn’t exist when I was there. Good restaurants were few and far between. I’m looking forward to sampling the local fare, and checking out that arena.”

In 1975, Navratilova was an 18-year-old high school student from Prague. At the time, her native Czechoslovakia was a part of the Soviet Union’s Eastern Bloc.

No Czech citizen could just come and go as they pleased.

During the U.S. Open that year, Martina announced her intentions to defect to the United States. The next year, in 1976, she moved to Dallas.

“I lived in Fort Worth from 1984 to ‘88, then I moved to Colorado and I lived in Aspen for 20 years; that’s the longest I’ve lived anywhere,” she said. “But between Dallas and Fort Worth, (she lived in DFW) for 10 or 11 years.

“I’m a Texan at heart, as well. Texas was very good to me when I defected, and I made my home in Dallas. The people in Texas really embraced me so I really appreciated that then and still do now.”

When Martina moved to Texas it was during the prime of her Hall of Fame career.

Players didn’t make nearly the money then that they do now, so their schedules were packed with as many tournaments as they could find.

She did play in a few tournaments in Texas, including ones in Dallas at SMU’s Moody Coliseum and she mentioned there was one in Fort Worth.

When Martina was in the midst of her playing career, whether her home was in Dallas, Fort Worth or Aspen, when she was actually at home, she was a homebody.

“I didn’t have that much time to go out back then,” she said. “I was so happy to be home because I traveled nine months out of the year. So, when I was home, I literally went out to dinner four or five times a year.

“The rest of the time, I was inside because I was so happy to eat a home cooked meal. It was always restaurants and room service. So when I was home, I was home. That was my vacation. I was not going anywhere.”

The restaurant she did frequent in Fort Worth more than others?

“Joe T. Garcias,” she said.

Of course.

Proving once again that there are some things actually do never, ever change.