NEW YORK -- Martina Navratilova did a smiling, waving 360-degree turn on the floor of Louis Armstrong Stadium Tuesday afternoon and the capacity crowd hammered their hands in appreciation. Then, as she walked off the court with doubles partner Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, her true emotions revealed themselves:

Navratilova closed her eyes and grimaced. She may even have uttered a bad word; at the very least, she thought of one.

She and Sanchez-Vicario were on serve with Sandrine Testud and Roberta Vinci at 4-5 in the third set of their quarterfinals doubles match, when it suddenly slipped away.

"I didn't hold serve. Basically, that's the bottom line," Navratilova said. "We were certainly in the match. There were just a couple of points we needed to win that we didn't. "

It was just these kind of big-match moments that brought Navratilova, who turns 45 next month, out of a five-year retirement last year. When she is in the so-called zone, as she was for parts of the second and third sets, Navratilova feels alive.

"You know, you're there," Navratilova said. "You can pretty much do whatever you want. It's a great feeling. It's like a drug. You want it to never stop."

While Navratilova is widely considered the greatest women's play ever -- if not the greatest player, period -- her accomplishments go far beyond a record 167 singles titles and 18 Grand Slam singles championships. She won a ludicrous 165 doubles titles between 1974 and 1994, including 31 in Grand Slam doubles and seven in mixed doubles.

Then, after the 1994 season she essentially retired. Her last Grand Slam appearance was in 1995 -- typically, she won the mixed doubles crown with Jonathan Stark.

After five years of living the good life (skiing, snowboarding, golf, horseback riding and playing with her Rhodesian ridgeback dog named Tuli) in Aspen, Col., Navratilova found herself missing tennis. She wasn't prepared to make the effort to compete in singles, but doubles was the perfect compromise.

"I never wanted to play singles again because I know the kind of commitment it takes," Navratilova said. "I don't want to go there, mentally or physically. I have a life. I have a great life. This is sort of an extra, playing doubles. It's a bonus -- it's not the most important thing in my life."

She teamed up with South African Mariaan de Swardt and reached the Round of 16 at last year's French Open. And then they lost to the Williams sisters in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. This year, she's already played eight tournaments with Sanchez-Vicario, 29, who remains a formidable singles player. Sanchez-Vicario was two and one-half years old when Navratilova won her first Grand Slam title.

They reached the finals at Amelia Island, but lost their first-round match at the French Open and were eliminated in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Navratilova and Sanchez-Vicario are planning to play a few tournaments in Asia and, perhaps, build their ranking high enough to qualify for the year-end tournament in Munich, Germany.

Navratilova still has amazing reflexes and volleying ability. Sometimes, though, she misses badly. Her first serves average around the low 80s, a good 20 miles per hour slower than the top servers in the game today and even farther away from some of Venus Williams' better serves. Once the most powerful player in women's tennis, Navratilova admits she is small by today's standards.

"I was at a certain level, but now Venus and Serena [Williams] are as good an athlete and they're bigger," Navratilova said. "Even if I'm as fast -- and they're probably faster, as well -- no matter what, I stretch and Venus has eight inches on me. They're bigger, better, stronger, faster."

And what of next year? Was this the last we'll see of Navratilova in the Grand Slams, or will she return for another victory lap?

"I don't know," Navratilova said.

Sanchez-Vicario smiled and interjected, "She's thinking to play with me next year or not, actually."

Judging by that grimace as she left the court, Navratilova will be back. She cares too much to walk away completely.

Asked during the post-match news conference if the game was still fun, she nodded.

"Yeah," Navratilova said. "It's just frustrating to lose. We had a good route to the finals. Not that I was looking that far. I just wanted to get to the semis. I think I just want to win so badly, that gets in the way."