Navratilova Finishes at Wimbledon

Martina Navratilova lost in the women’s doubles semifinals Saturday and will retire with 20 Wimbledon titles, a record she shares with Billie Jean King.

A nine-time Wimbledon singles champ, the 47-year-old Navratilova reaffirmed her plans to retire at the end of the year.

“I will be back, but not to play,” she said.

Navratilova and Lisa Raymond, seeded third, lost 7-6 (4), 7-5 to Liezel Huber and Ai Sugiyama, who advanced to the final against Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs.

“That’s probably the hardest that I ever tried and still lost, but that’s how it goes,” Navratilova said.

Navratilova played singles at Wimbledon for the first time in 10 years and lost in the second round. She and Leander Paes, the defending champions in mixed doubles, lost in the third round.

Because of rain, her last match was postponed 24 hours, and her final mixed doubles match spanned three days.

“I think it’s a lot less emotional this time. Just the way it ended was very anticlimactic,” she said. “It just ended on a definite weird note, to say the least.

“But we gave it our best shot. We didn’t play our best tennis, but we played well enough to win.”

Navratilova will make her Olympic debut next month in Athens, where she’ll team again with Raymond in doubles.

Navratilova has 58 Grand Slam titles. Her last appearance in a major event will be at the U.S. Open.