Rebecca Gitlitz

I can sum up my reaction to Chris & Martina: The Final Set, Netflix’s new documentary about two of the greatest tennis players of all time, in two words: Love, love. Over the course of 15 years, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova played a record-setting 80 matches against each other, living out one of the greatest rivalries in sports history. But what makes their competition so inspiring and documentary-worthy is not just the pinnacle of excellence these athletes reached but the deep friendship that resulted from it and the way the two women are still there for each other all these years later as they fight a common enemy: cancer. Even if you’ve never watched a tennis match, it’s impossible not to be deeply moved by these two women. Gitlitz aces the film’s most important contribution, which, according to 22-time Grand Slam champion, Pam Shriver, is that it proves that true sportsmanship really exists. And that’s a lesson we all need to learn now more than ever.

Netflix’s Chris & Martina: The Final Set is ostensibly about tennis legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, but by the time the credits roll, it becomes something far more profound: a meditation on time, mortality, friendship, and the realization that the people who challenge us most may understand us better than anyone else. At its heart, the documentary celebrates the essence of true sportsmanship. For decades, Evert and Navratilova battled fiercely for supremacy on the court, pushing each other to extraordinary heights and forever changing women’s tennis. Yet the film reveals that their greatest journey was not toward championships, rankings, or records, but toward understanding one another. These two lionesses fought not only for titles but for their lives, their identities, their loves, and their place in history. As the years pass and both women confront cancer, loss, and the realities of aging, they come full circle, evolving from rivals into each other’s fiercest advocates and most trusted confidantes.