Thirty years ago a Czech teenager left home to play tennis in the United States and felt like she had come home.
This week Martina Navratilova, at the age of 47, will play doubles under an American flag in the final four of the Fed Cup.
To add resonance to her "second coming", Navratilova will be playing in the former Soviet capital of Moscow.
The Soviet Union's vice-like grip on Czech life was the driving force for Navratilova's defection to the U.S. in 1975 and, despite the changes across eastern Europe triggered by the fall of the Berlin Wall, she admits Moscow will never be just another city.
"It all comes flooding back whenever I am there," she said in an interview this week.
"I remembered myself then, as a little girl, living under that oppression.
"I think this week, with me making my comeback for America, will bring up those days even more strongly."
Navratilova won the Fed Cup with Czechoslovakia in 1975 and then with the U.S. in 1982, the year after she received her American citizenship.
In 1986 she made an emotional return to her Czech homeland for the Fed Cup final that the U.S. won.
"I love being American, I love this country, I love living here. My ego's on the shelf," said the 18-times singles Grand Slam champion.
"I'm going to do whatever it takes to make the team better, that's what I'll do."
Navratilova last played Fed Cup tennis in 1995 but winning the mixed doubles this year with Leander Paes at the Australian Open and Wimbledon -- her 20th All England title -- and reaching the U.S. Open doubles final with Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova showed that her touch and anticipation is as good as ever.
If the U.S. beat Belgium, who are without world numbers one and two Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters in the semi-finals, they will face either Russia or France in the final.
The Russians are favourites to win the tournament for the first time -- a year after Russia's men won their first Davis Cup -- as the four players in their team are all in the world's top 13.
Just as in Navratilova's heyday, parents in Russia see tennis as a means to financial improvement and former president Boris Yeltsin's interest in the game also helped fuel the flood of Russian youngsters on to the women's tour.
Navratilova's main goal is to represent the U.S. at the 2004 Olympics and add yet another medal to her collection but a showdown in the final against the Russians would certainly add an interesting footnote to her astonishing career.
"Now going to Moscow, it's kind of ironic how it all is kind of coming full circle," she says.
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