Daniela Hantuchova discovered herself in tears as Martina Navratilova was given the Golden Racket award on the Italian Open. The retired Slovakian star recommended the 18-time Grand Slam champion for her achievements on and off the courtroom as her sobs briefly pressured her to cease speaking.

Navratilova was honoured with the Golden Racket award throughout a particular presentation forward of the lads's singles last in Rome on Sunday. The tennis icon gave an emotional speech in Italian, which noticed Hantuchova diminished to tears as she tried to translate Navratilova's phrases for Prime Video viewers.

"I will try not to be emotional here because every word Martina said, you can see how much it means to her," she began. "Basically saying the passion that the Italian crowd brings here to the tournament is the way she always tried to play tennis, first time she played here was 1973 and even though she never won the tournament she always felt like this was her home.

"And she loves the meals clearly, not like days at present and he or she's going to have the ice cream however she talked about how a lot she all the time loved taking part in right here in Rome." Hantuchova then opted to pay tribute to Navratilova - who grew up in Czechoslovakia and had to ask the US for political asylum.

With Hantuchova hailing from Slovakia herself, she grew emotional and had to stop halfway through her sentence as she teared up. "And I simply wish to say from private expertise, coming from the identical a part of the world, what Martina has achieved in tennis I feel needs to be multiplied by 10 instances," she added, before starting to cry.

The former world No 5 tried to compose herself as she continued: "During the rain breaks we've the privilege to speak to Martina about her background, how she left Czechoslovakia. And even for me, she was our nationwide hero for each single little woman rising up laying tennis. We form of knew it was powerful for her however truly this week I discovered a lot extra about it.

"And when I started to play, it was tough for us still but then understanding what Martina had to go through and achieve everything she's done." Hantuchova grew emotional once more, earlier than Navratilova joined the Prime workforce and thanked the seven-time title winner for serving to her together with her speech in Italian.

"I have to say thank you to Daniela, Daniela helped me with the pronunciation. She helped me get the pronunciation right," she stated. Navratilova was famously granted momentary residence in America in 1975, on the age of 18. She was stripped of her Czechoslovakia citizenship in consequence and, six years later, grew to become a US citizen.