In week one, the judges used words like "beautiful," "refined" and "very good job" on her Foxtrot. But when Navratilova danced the Jive this week to the lowest score of the season after a noticeable misstep, she landed at the bottom of the judges' leaderboard. She was given 17 out of 30 points for her Jive and viewer votes weren't enough to save her.
"I blew the first seconds of the dance and there's the whole season," she said. "I'm not used to that because in tennis you miss a shot and you come back for the next point. This, I made a mistake the first 10 seconds of this routine and there goes a month of hard work."
Dovolani said Navratilova gave it everything she had.
"That's part of the reason it feels so bad to me because I feel like in some ways I wish the audience got to see the hard work and the dedication she gave me. I think they would have appreciated it better," he said.
Dovolani, who's been on the show all but one season, said he is devastated by the elimination, especially since Navratilova was enthusiastic and ready to work from day one.
"I'm shocked, actually," he said. "Probably the first time ever in 13 seasons that I'm surprised. I did not expect this. I thought the audience would really stand behind us in this."
Navratilova was disappointed, but apparently not surprised.
"It happened to me but it's not the end of the world," she said. "I'm glad that I did it. I learned to dance, I'm going to continue to dance and nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Up for elimination next to Navratilova and Dovolani were Gavin DeGraw and partner Karina Smirnoff.
Returning to compete next week on "Dancing With The Stars" will be actors Jaleel White, Roshon Fagan, William Levy, Jack Wagner and Melissa Gilbert; singers Gladys Knight, DeGraw and Katherine Jenkins; TV personalities Maria Menounos and Sherri Shepherd; and football star Donald Driver.
Check out photos of this season's first "Dancing With The Stars" elimination night.
