Hana Mandlíková was born in Prague in 1962. She burst onto the scene at 15, in 1977, winning an under-16 event in Milan without losing a set, and in 1978 she was world junior champion and turned professional. Growing up in Prague she had admired Martina Navratilova, and like her she was a magnificent athlete who believed that the only thing better than attacking was attacking more.
In 1980, aged 18, she reached the US Open final, taking a set from Chris Evert, and then won the Australian Open, beating Wendy Turnbull 6–0, 7–5. At the 1981 French Open she ended Evert's 72-match winning streak on clay and beat Sylvia Hanika in the final, and she went on to the Wimbledon final, her fourth consecutive major final. Evert beat her in three of those finals, at the 1980 and 1982 US Opens and at Wimbledon in 1981.
The tennis writer Bud Collins called her a "streak breaker", and her greatest day proved it. At the 1985 US Open she beat Evert in the semifinals and Navratilova 7–6, 1–6, 7–6 in the final on consecutive days, becoming only the third woman, after those two, to win major titles on grass, clay and hard courts. She helped Czechoslovakia win the Federation Cup three years running, from 1983 to 1985. In 1986 Navratilova beat her in the Wimbledon and US Open finals, but in 1987 Mandlíková took revenge in the Australian Open final, 7–5, 7–6, for her fourth and last major title.
She spent seven years in the world top 10, won 27 singles titles and 19 doubles titles, including the 1989 US Open doubles with Navratilova, and became an Australian citizen in 1988. After retiring in 1990 she coached Jana Novotná for nine years, helping her win Wimbledon in 1998.