For 16 years, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova faced each other on the tennis court: they met 80 times—and 60 times in finals. Howard tells the story of how these two women came together from disparate worlds and founded a complicated though lasting friendship. Evert, the charming, pony tailed daughter of a middle-class, all-American family. Navratilova exuded seriousness: her determined look and sturdy frame matched her history, a dramatic, heart-wrenching one that involved leaving her family behind in communist Czechoslovakia and her being a lesbian. Howard shows how Evert and Navratilova's paths slowly merged, until they finally faced each other for the first time in 1973. From then until 1988, they traded leads, with Evert winning most of the early matches and Navratilova dominating in later years (overall, Navratilova held a 43–37 advantage).