Crunch day for fortysomething Navratilova

"Tennis stunts your emotional growth," Martina Navratilova is reported to have said this week, which, coming from the most successful player in the history of the game, suggests she may have a lot of growing still to do.

"You are so focused, you don't know who you are," Navratilova explained, suggesting that she had once been a spoilt brat needing someone to shut her up.

Navratilova is certainly seeking unexpected ways of solving what looks like a very public mid-life crisis as she and Natasha Zvereva yesterday let slip final-set leads of 3-0 and 4-2 to lose 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Lori McNeil and Amanda Coetzer in the women's doubles first round at the Britannic International Championships.

Having announced that she and her unnamed partner want to adopt children - "It will happen when the time is right and I will be a good, fun mother," she said - the 45-year-old Navratilova today plays WTA Tour singles for the first time since November 1994.

Against a tenacious opponent in Tatiana Panova this is unlikely to rekindle any glory, but one thing will remain the same: no one will dare tell the famous lady not to do it.

On the other hand few expected Navratilova and Zvereva to win the doubles title in Madrid last month, which not only extended her all-time record of titles to 166, but also earned her a first trophy in more than eight years - and a chance to revel in her prolonged vitality.

"I know I'm an exception - you don't see men of my age still playing, let alone women," she reckoned. She is not quite a solitary exception, though, as Gardnar Mulloy won a Wimbledon doubles title at 43, but Navratilova's body does look in good shape and her performance may help dispel a few prejudices about age.

Meanwhile Mary Pierce's stuttering comeback encountered another hiccup when she lost 6-4, 6-4 in the first round to Ai Sugiyama, the world No30 from Japan.

Pierce's last match on grass was at Wimbledon two years ago and she blamed her lack of experience of the conditions and a bout of sickness for her exit on the opening day.

"It's weird playing three weeks a year on grass," she said. "If we played a longer season, I think I would be much better. I think I have a good game to do well on grass.

"Not feeling well in the last couple of days did not help. I had a nose and throat virus and didn't want to get out of bed this morning."

The championships here got under way in glorious sunshine on the south coast, where the top seeds Jelena Dokic, Sandrine Testud, Daniela Hantuchova and Silvia Farina Elia all have byes into the second round.

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