NEW YORK -- She was the "Chubby Czech" when she arrived here from Czechoslovakia, a plump 18-year-old with promise.
But the ugly duckling turned into Martina Navratilova, the greatest player the women's tennis tour ever has seen. And tonight, at Madison Square Garden, she will begin play in the Virginia Slims Championships, the last singles tournament of her professional career.
"Getting old is very annoying," said Navratilova, 38. "But I have been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have careers, so I am ready to retire."
She is ready to discover life without a preordained schedule. Fans may see her as a multimillionaire who has traveled the world, but she has been a one-dimensional traveler.
She has been to Paris 20 times without visiting the Louvre, to Rome without going on a shopping spree.
"I realized the other day that New Zealand is the only place I've ever been that I didn't play tennis," she said. "It is going to be a whole new world for me, discovering the arts and beauty of the earth.
"All these years, I went shopping twice a year, maybe, when I needed clothes. So it will be nice to have the time to really walk around and see the sights."
Tonight, after her first-round match against Gabriela Sabatini, Navratilova will be honored with a "Tribute to Martina."
She will be presented with a 12-foot tennis ball that has been on tour around New York -- Penn Station, Planet Hollywood, subway stations, -- and has nearly 10,000 signatures.
Then, as she says, "I'll be made to feel like one of the Knicks," as a red banner with her name and a yellow tennis ball is raised to the ceiling, to hang alongside the retired numbers and championship banners of the New York Knicks and Rangers.
It will be the first Garden banner to honor an individual outside a team sport and the first for a woman.
And why not? She has been unique among women on the tour, or any tour for that matter, not only because of her brazen, attacking style and the marvelous results she has compiled on court, but because of all the other things she was and is:
Defector, immigrant, gay. A woman always willing to give an opinion no matter the consequences, a woman who changed the way women prepared to play tennis.
She is an athletic, left-handed serve-and-volley player who is always on the attack in a game in which most women play it safe on and off the court.
"I remember watching Martina dive all over the court last fall at the Garden against 19-year-old Mary Pierce and thinking to myself, 'This woman is amazing,' " said Sabatini, who says she wants to win tonight, but will be sad if she does.
"Martina has always been amazing, yes," Sabatini said. "She was one of the first players to focus on fitness, and forced other players to learn that they would need to train hard to keep up with her.
"I remember the first time I played her, in the 1986 Wimbledon semifinals. She defeated me in straight sets and went on to win the tournament. But I was happy. It was like living a dream at the time. At 16, I was still a kid, but I was playing against one of the pro athletes I had seen on TV and in the newspapers. . . . And when I finally defeated her for the first time in the Italian Open the next year, it really boosted my confidence."
During 22 years on the pro circuit, Navratilova has won 167 singles and 165 doubles titles. Along the way she shared every emotion.
There was her pure, unrestrained joy at winning her first tournament in Orlando, Fla., in 1974, when, knowing no one, she unabashedly hugged a lamp post.
There were the tears of total dejection on Stadium Court at Flushing Meadow, when she lost in the 1981 U.S. Open final to Tracy Austin.
Then came the determination and dedication to becoming almost invincible after a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Chris Evert at a tournament in Amelia Island, Fla., that same year.
That loss sent her into the weight room and spurred her to the best stretch of her career. During Navratilova's No. 1 reign, from 1982 to 1985, she lost only six matches.
"People went out on the court feeling defeated," said Pam Shriver, her former longtime doubles partner. "Even Chrissie said she never felt so intimidated. The power, the speed, the whole style of play, rushing at every opportunity, was intimidating."
Navratilova shrugs.
"I was never one to wait for things to happen on or off the court," Navratilova said.
And, finally, there was the graceful loss at this past Wimbledon. There, despite being denied a record 10th singles title, she shared her love for the tournament and its history as she stooped to retrieve some blades of grass from Centre Court. The grass is still alive and growing at her home in Aspen, Colo.
Through it all, she somehow stayed vulnerable: clutching her own throat when she thought she had choked on a point, cringing when her love life made headlines in the London tabloids.
"She's going to be pretty nervous [tonight]," said Shriver, who is also competing here in doubles competition with Liz Smylie. "They're going to be raising her jersey to the roof, the crowd will be cheering for her and she'll want to be at her best. She's not far from the very top even now, but she knows she can't play her best all the time. She knows it is there some days, and on those days tennis is easy. But the next day, it can be terrible."
Navratilova's coach, Craig Kardon, said: "I think she is worried about how everybody is going to remember her. She is worried -- she is trying to be a little bit too perfect out there."
And Navratilova, who has always competed hard, says her greatest opponent these days is herself.
"When I try to serve and I am swinging as hard as I can and the ball is barely making it over the net, about 80 miles an hour, when they used to be 100 miles an hour, that is annoying," she said. "Now, it is like such a struggle to just win a match, yet I am a much better player than I was then, technically and every other way, except physically, perhaps.
"So then you have to say it is just getting old, and that really bugs me. But that is life."
And life is about to begin again. Navratilova, as much as she has loved tennis, can't wait to begin.
"I have things I want to do," she said. "I want to go snow-boarding and wind-surfing and go on safari to Africa. I'll miss hitting the ball exactly how I want to, when I have to. . . . But my self-worth has not been ruled by tennis and I am ready to live my life without scheduling it around tennis."
MARTINA'S CAREER
Grand Slam singles titles: 18.
* Australian Open (3): 1981,
1983, 1985.
* French Open (2): 1982, 1984.
* Wimbledon (9): 1978-79,
1982-87, 1990.
* U.S. Open (4): 1983-84,
1986-87.
Career singles titles: 167.
Career singles record: 1,443-210, .873 winning percentage.
Career doubles titles: 165.
Grand Slam doubles titles: 37 (31 women's, 6 mixed).
Career earnings: $20,065,290.
No. 1 ranking: Held for 381 weeks, the longest consecutive stretch being 156 weeks from June 14, 1982, to June 9, 1985.