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Jana Novotna dies aged 49

November 20, 2017

Former Wimbledon tennis champion Jana Novotna has died of cancer. The Czech former player won dozens of singles and doubles titles on the women's professional tour and was also an Olympic medalist.

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Jana Novotna gestorben
Image: picture-alliance/empics/N. Munns

The Czech player won 24 singles titles and 76 doubles titles during a 14-year-long career, reaching the peak of her prowess in 1998 when she triumphed in the women's singles at the All England Club.

She reached her highest singles ranking – No. 2 in the world – in September 1997, but was known more as a doubles player earlier in her career, winning all four doubles Grand Slams multiple times between 1990 and 1998.

Novotna represented her country at the Olympic Games, winning silver in the doubles for the former Czechoslovakia in Seoul in 1988 and for the Czech Republic in Atlanta in 1996 – where she also won bronze in the singles. She also won the Fed Cup with Czechoslovakia in 1988.

"Jana was an inspiration for everybody who was lucky enough to meet her, both on and off the court,"Steve Simon, the CEO of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), said in a statement.

mf/pfd (dpa, AP)