Martina's Appearance on "On Side" June 21, 1999 Here are the details of Martina's appearance on the BBC1 sports chat show, "On Side", hosted by John Inverdale. Many of the viewers who wrote to me noticed that Martina looked surprisingly "younger" than she did when she used to play on the Tour earlier this decade. I imagine the rest and relaxation and tennis-free life is suiting Martina just fine! With no Legends events either this year, Martina has a lot of free time. Martina talked about her younger days in the Czech Republic. And also about her rivalry with Chris Evert. When asked why the Wimbledon crowds mainly favoured Chris during their battles there, Martina joked that Chris married John Lloyd while she didn't! :) Martina also talked about her first-ever match at Wimbledon against Christine Truman-Janes. She laughed that she had breathing problems during that match, because the dress she was wearing was too small and Martina herself was too fat! Asked to pick one particular Wimbledon match as her best match, she just couldn't and opted instead for all the finals she won! Good choice, Martina! Talking about her current life, Martina said that she spent a couple of months in Kenya earlier this year, and plans on going to Indonesia later this month. Martina enjoys her vacations these days as she never got to do a lot of this before. Could she be competitive on the womens Tour now? Martina replied that she would need to get in better shape, as she's not as fit as she needs to be. But she does see herself as being able to win one or two matches. Martina's favourites to win Wimbledon this year are Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. Asked why she wasn't playing mixed doubles with Agassi this year, Martina quipped, "If you can convince him, maybe next year!" Martina also touched the topic of equal prize money. She said, ""What amazes me is the stubbornness with which the (All England) club, particularly the chairman John Curry, are just saying 'no, there won't be equal prize money'." Martina felt that this was just not a good enough reason. She pointed out that the TV station that she worked for (HBO) showed more womens matches than men's matches, even on Day One (the traditional Men's Day). The fans come to Wimbledon to watch the tennis and end up watching both the men and the women. Regarding this year's French Open final, Martina thought [Martina] Hingis showed great disrespect towards [Steffi] Graf, and attributed it to being embarassed because she was losing. She pointed out how last year Hingis had said that Graf's time had passed, and then there she was losing to her in the final. Martina also didn't think much about Hingis' underhand serves match point down, saying "she wanted to show off to the crowd". She did think, initially, that the Parisian crowds were a bit unfair towards Hingis, but in the end, she felt Hingis went too far. All in all, everyone agreed it was a great interview with Martina being her usual candid and honest self. I only wish I could have seen it.