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No medals were awarded as this was not an official Olympic event.[23]. Finally Graf was given a match but prevailed 6-3, 7-6 where she would meet a surprise opponent in the final. In 1985 and early 1986, Graf emerged as the top challenger to the dominance of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Graf then capped the year by beating countrywoman Anke Huber in a five-set final at the season-ending WTA Championships in 2 hours and 46 minutes. Highly emotional and sensitive, with a . While the Berlin tournament was being played, the largest-circulation German tabloid, Bild, ran a story about an alleged scandal involving Graf's father. Since Graf skipped the Italian Open, she did not take part in the vote. The Trials of Steffi Graf. Furthermore, Graf's backhand was, in a subtle way, an extremely aggressive shot. In the Miami final, she lost her first set of the yearto Natasha Zverevaafter winning 54 consecutive sets. "[38], Graf followed this with easy victories in her next four tournaments at Washington, D.C., San Antonio, Texas, Boca Raton, Florida, and Hilton Head. Graf had a bone splinter in her right foot during this tournament (and for the next few months), finally resulting in surgery on 4 October.[53]. Steffi Graf -vs- Opponent Name Score: Result: win/loss Part 1 : View Download Part 2 :View Download ., Steffi Graf - My Best: "Steffi is the goddess of Tennis" : John McEnroe "She let her racket do the talking. Steffi Graf and Serena Williams played just twice. Steffi Graf: Steffi Graf has 22 grand slams to her name, most coming during the late 80s and 90s. [37] He went on to add, "I saw what Steffi did to Sabatini at the Australian Open this year, and that was it. Graf beat opponents with spectacular precision, and Williams had a power game, unlike any woman in professional tennis. Graf also won the 1984 demonstration event at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, but this was for players aged 21 or under, and it was not an official Olympic event. At the French Open, Graf successfully defended her title by defeating Natasha Zvereva 60, 60 in a 34-minute final. [94] At the 1999 Wimbledon Championships, Graf formed a much-publicized partnership with John McEnroe, with whom she reached the semifinals before withdrawing due to concerns that her uncertain hamstring, coupled with a bout of bronchitis, would affect her in the singles final. In total, she won 22 Grand Slam titles: the Australian Open four times, Roland Garros six times, Wimbledon seven times and the US Open five times. Only results in WTA Tour (incl. 667 (25-02-23) Best Rank. Illness caused her to miss Wimbledon,[26] and an accident where she broke a toe several weeks later also curtailed her play. [88] Sabatini said of the partnership: "doubles is all about communicating with each other, and we didn't communicate that much. She was anchored in the top spot in the Women's Tennis Association rankings for a record 377 weeks, including 186 consecutive from August 1987 to March 1991. Graf was ranked world No. [142] The Graf-Agassi family resides in Summerlin, a community in the Las Vegas Valley. She then successfully defended her title at the US Open, defeating Monica Seles in the final. In an interview with Stern magazine in July 1990, Graf stated, "I could not fight as usual."[46]. Monica Seles was an opponent in six major finals and the duo spilt at 3-3. At age 13 she became the second youngest player ever to earn an international ranking. Graf began playing tennis with the encouragement of her father, who became her coach. Five months later, the world no. [117] Early in her career, Graf used the Dunlop Maxpower Pro and Maxpower Kevlar racquets and then played with the Max 200G racquet from 1984 to 1993[118][119][120][121] before switching to Wilson from 1994 to 1999. Though she lost the game to opponent Tracy Austin by 6-4, 6-0, this did very little to dishearten the young blood. In addition to being great as players, they were also great as husband and wife. [124][125][126] In 2010, Graf and Agassi collaborated with Head and developed the new line of Star Series tennis racquets. ", "An Evolutionary History of Tennis Racquets", "Marketing to the female target audience", "OFFBEAT: Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf team up for new tennis racquet", "Viewing Gallery: Happy Birthday! At the beginning of 1999 Graf played the warm up event to the Australian Open in Sydney; she defeated Serena Williams in the second round and Venus in the quarterfinals before losing to Lindsay Davenport in the semifinal. 1 ranking. Graf lost an Australian Open quarterfinal to Jana Novotn, the first time she did not reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament since the 1986 French Open. And on 5 June 1988, the match for the championship against the Soviet Unions Natasha Zvereva lasted a mere 34 minutes, with Zverera mustering only a few points in a 6-0, 6-0 whitewash. n civa ani ajunge . Martina Navratilova included Graf at the top of her list of the greatest players ever. Venus Williams. AP Photo/Bruno Mosconi. [68] All Rights Reserved. On 5 June 1999, backed by a passionate central court crowd at Roland Garros, Graf won an epic final 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 against world no. For the German painter, see. Venus Williams won her first Games titles 19 years ago, and she hasnt finished yet! Graf then lost a closely contested final to Monica Seles, 26, 63, 810. Speculation was rife at the beginning of 1989 about the possibility of Graf winning another Grand Slam. [41][42] Graf, however, recovered to defeat Martina Navratilova 62, 67, 61 in the Wimbledon final after defeating Monica Seles 60, 61 in a fourth round match, Arantxa Snchez Vicario in a quarterfinal, and Chris Evert in a semifinal. The Serbian tennis player this week surpassed Steffi Graf in the record of weeks at the top of the world ranking (both men's and women's) and there is curiosity to understand where Nole can arrive . I don't care who believes Court and Serena are greater than her because I don't subscribe to highest slam count is the be-all and end-all in GOAT. Steffi Graf went on to win Wimbledon in 1996, beating Arantxa . Her 63, 60 defeat of Gabriela Sabatini in a semifinal was described by veteran observer Ted Tinling as "probably the best tennis I've seen". [154] Her unprecedented Golden Slam saw her receive the 1988 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. Graf played a singles exhibition match against Kim Clijsters and a mixed doubles exhibition alongside husband Andre Agassi against Tim Henman and Clijsters as part of a test event and celebration for the newly installed roof over Wimbledon's Centre Court in 2009. [24] In 1985, for instance, she played only ten events leading up to the US Open, whereas another up-and-coming star, Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, who was a year younger than Graf, played 21. The following day, Andre Agassi won the mens singles tournament, coming back from two sets down to beat Russias Andrei Medvedev, and he and Graf later started dating. She then successfully defended the three Grand Slam titles she won the year before. Her birth name is Stefanie Maria Graf and she is currently 51 years old. Highly emotional and sensitive, with a temperament more suited to a poet than to a professional athlete, Steffi had a poignant sadness about . Her toughest battle came against rising star Martina Hingis in the semifinal, with Hingis unable to convert on five set points. . Seles established herself as the new dominant player on the women's tour, winning the Australian Open, French Open, and US Open and, in March, ending Graf's record 186 consecutive-weeks hold on the World No. 1, Reached the final of every tournament played in a calendar year, Two streaks of 5 years with winning percentage of 90%+, 8 WTA Tier 1/Premier-5/Premier Mandatory clay titles, 89.63% win rate (147-17) in WTA Tier 1/Premier-5/Premier Mandatory events, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 18:23. 3, Jana Novotn, before losing in the semifinal to first-seeded Davenport. Graf became the first player in the open era to defeat the first, second, and third ranked players in the same Grand Slam tournament by beating second-ranked Davenport in the quarterfinals and third-ranked Seles in the semifinals. In July 2005, Graf competed in one tie of World Team Tennis (WTT) on the Houston Wranglers team. [11][12][13][14] She won six French Open singles titles (second to Evert), seven Wimbledon singles titles, four Australian Open titles, and five US Open singles titles. [76] Graf played only one warm-up event ahead of the US Open, the Acura Classic in Manhattan Beach, California, where she lost to Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals. [116][13] Graf stated that grass was her favorite surface to play on, while clay was her least favorite. This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Steffi Graf. Both dominated opponents with power and movement. In the final, Evert was completely overwhelmed in the first set, losing 6-1. During a quarterfinal match between Seles and Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg, Seles was stabbed between the shoulder blades by a mentally ill German fan of Graf, Gnter Parche. It was decided to grant her a joint number-one ranking with Graf who took her first loss of the year in the first round to Amanda Coetzer. Torture and boredom, boredom and torture, that's how it is for Steffi Graf. This was a major upset as Garrison had to save a match point to defeat Monica Seles in the quarterfinal, and was expected to easily fall to Graf, whom she had not beaten in four years. [16], In March 2012, Tennis Channel picked Graf as the greatest female tennis player ever in their list of 100 greatest tennis players of all time. At the Roland-Garros trophy ceremony, after she . Performance timelines. She won no titles during the next three years, but her ranking climbed steadily to world No. . Opponent W L Win% TB W L TB% First Last MS DR A% DF% 1stIn 1st% 2nd% SPW RPW BPSvd% BPCnv% 40: Gabriela Sabatini [ARG] 29: 11: 72.5%: 14: 7: 7: 50.0%: . It actually had several major flaws, especially based on today's understanding of stroke. [155], In 2004, the Berliner Tennis-Arena was renamed Steffi-Graf-Stadion in honor of Graf. Steffi Graf vs. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario ** **Head to Head: **28-8, Graf . [56][57] This was followed by a first-round straight-sets loss at Wimbledon to Lori McNeil, her only loss at Wimbledon between 1991 and 1997 and her first loss in a first round Grand Slam tournament in ten years. Just over 30 years old, Graf retired . . On 17 August, after defeating Evert in a straight set final in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, Graf overtook Navratilova for the world No. Next up were the grass courts of Wimbledon, where Graf was never in any danger until the final, when she came up against six-time defending champion Navratilova, unbeaten since 1981. She then lost to Sabatini in her next three tournaments before winning the U.S. Hardcourt Championships in San Antonio, beating Monica Seles in the final. At the first round of the season-ending Chase Championships, Graf defeated world No. The match was notable for its dramatic ending. In August as a 15-year-old (and youngest entrant) representing West Germany, she won the tennis demonstration event at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. . In the middle of the second set, Graf suffered back spasms while reaching for a ball in the ad court. will, Steffi would don her stoical mask and use her cannon of a forehand, the most powerful weapon in the women's game, to overwhelm her opponents. [145], In 2001, Graf indicated that she preferred to be called Stefanie instead of Steffi. [9] She won 107 singles titles, ranking her third on the WTA's all-time list after Martina Navratilova (167 titles) and Chris Evert (157 titles). [22] She began practising on a court at the age of four and played in her first tournament at five. 1988 French Open. Graf, however, won the tournament in San Antonio, Texas, and retained her title in Miami, where she once again defeated Evert in the final. [146], In December 1999, Graf was named the greatest female tennis player of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by the Associated Press. [8] Furthermore, she is the only tennis player, male or female, to have won each major tournament at least four times. She has emerged as one of the strongest tennis players of all time. 1 ranking while she was sidelined. Graf had complained of an issue with her left knee but showed little trouble outplaying her opponent. American star Chris Evert, meanwhile, failed to take a set off Graf in three matches. who often frustrated opponents with variety and consistency. Less than three weeks after beating her in New York, Graf inflicted yet another defeat on the Argentinean, giving her no chance with an imposing 6-3, 6-3 victory. She retired from tennis in 1999. And the year began as expected, with Graf extending her Grand Slam tournament winning streak to five events at the Australian Open, defeating Helena Sukov in the final. 3, having racked up a total of 107 tournament victories. Voted The best female role model in sports in a survey by Barclays, sponsors of the Premier League, 2010. At Wimbledon, Graf lost in the semifinals to Zina Garrison, who with this victory broke Graf's string of 13 consecutive major finals. [75] Graf then had a straight-sets win against Snchez Vicario in the Wimbledon final. I've always looked up to her and the way she approached the game" : Pete Sampras Even discounting that result, no other player had played and won 27 Grand Slam matches in a single year before. As true as that forehand was, the mask was no less a lie. 2 (21-06-10) Titles. [149], Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, named Graf as the best female player of the 20th century. [134] During her career, Graf divided her time between her hometown of Brhl; Boca Raton, Florida; and New York City where she owned a penthouse in the former Police Headquarters Building in SoHo. It was the longest French Open women's singles final in history, both in terms of time (3 hours and 3 minutes) and number of games played (40). [50][51], During Seles's absence, Graf won 65 of 67 matches,[52] three of four Grand Slam events and the year-end Virginia Slims championships. 2 Hingis and world No. . Whether this scandal affected Graf's form is open to debate. When she was nine years old, her family moved to the neighboring town of Brhl. Graf was the first tennis player to achieve the feat: wheelchair tennis players Diede de Groot and Dylan Alcott achieved the Golden Slam in 2021. She would later become the world's number one female tennis player. In reaching and winning all four Grand Slam finals, Graf became the first player in history to contest and win 28 Grand Slam singles matches in a single year; albeit including the unplayed walkover against Evert in the US Open. [55] In the Hamburg final, she lost for the first time in 1994 after 36 consecutive match victories, losing to Snchez Vicario in three sets. 1 was in peerless form on the clay courts of Roland . Twice in the third set Snchez Vicario served for the championship but was broken each time by Graf. Despite their differences, their careers, on and off the court . That doesn't mean it will happen. . Fernandez had two break points to take a 30 and double break lead in the third set. 1999 Athlete of the Century for the category Female Athlete in Ballsports by a panel of the, 1999 The Greatest Female Tennis Player of the 20th century, by a panel of tennis experts assembled by the Associated Press, 1999 Female Athlete of the Year, by the German television broadcaster ARD, 1999 Female Sports Award of the Last Decade, by, 1999 Olympic Order granted by Dr. Antonio Samaranch, president of the IOC, 2002 Medal of Honor, bestowed by the prime minister of Graf's home state, 2008 Cross of the Order of Merit awarded to her by German Federal President Horst Khler. [33] Zvereva, who had eliminated Martina Navratilova in the fourth round, won only thirteen points in the match.[33]. [16] When asked in an interview to name the greatest players of all time, Serena Williams stated Graf and Roger Federer. "[89] Her endurance and superior footwork allowed her to excel on clay courts, where, in addition to six French Open titles, she won 26 regular tour events, including a record eight titles at the German Open. She claimed a prestigious and symbolic victory in the final against Yugoslavias Sabrina Gole on the courts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), winning 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. Graf, meanwhile, was back to defend her Olympic title on the clay courts of Barcelona 1992, where she took silver after losing to the USAs Jennifer Capriati in the final. [34] She then won tournaments in Hamburg and Mahwah (where she lost only eight games all tournament). On 1 October 1988, in winning the final at the Olympic Games in Seoul, German tennis player Steffi Graf achieved what no one else had done before or has done since. [144], In 1991, the Steffi Graf Youth Tennis Center in Leipzig was dedicated to her. The difficulty of answering questions about the matter came to a head at a Wimbledon press conference, where Graf broke down in tears. [77] This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Steffi Graf. Graf vs Williams H2H MATCHES PLAYED All Rounds Final 1/2 1/4 First Second Third Fourth Qualifying q-First q-Second Pre-q Rubber 1 Rubber 2 Rubber 3 Rubber 4 Rubber 5 Robin Bronze N/A She has a brother named Michael. In her professional tennis career, Steffi Graf spent 377 weeks as the No. She also . After victories in Montreal and San Diego, Graf reached the US Open final, where she lost in straight sets to Sabatini. The assailant, a fan of German . Answer (1 of 4): It isn't hard to replicate Steffi Graf's forehand, it's just not optimal. Wimbledon authorities then threatened to immediately shut down any subsequent press conferences where questions about the issue were asked. [113] She often positioned herself in her backhand corner and although this left her forehand wide open and vulnerable to attack, her court speed meant that only the most accurate shots wide to her forehand caused any trouble. I had one day to turn around, get home, change and get on the flight to Seoul. I feel I have nothing left to accomplish. Graf served for the match at 53 in the third set but lost the game and won only three more points in the match. Her 0.977 winning percentage is the second-highest in the open era behind Navratilova.[44]. The loss deprived her of the Golden Super Slam. At the US Open, Graf was upset in the quarterfinals by Snchez Vicario 76, 63. Soon after, she split with her long-time coach, Pavel Sloil. A worthy opponent, she is an exceptional and versatile player to have dominated the international women's tennis scene for a long time. 1 female player and won 22 Grand Slam singles titles. [115], Early in her career, Graf wore Dunlop apparel, before signing an endorsement contract with Adidas in 1985. Graf and Navratilova faced each other six times and Graf had the advantage, 4-2. Chicago was notable, however, for being the first tournament Graf played with her new coach, former Swiss player Heinz Gnthardt. She started the year strongly, with six tournament victories heading into the French Open, with the highlight being at the tournament in Miami, where she defeated Martina Navratilova in a semifinal and Chris Evert in the final and lost only 20 games in the seven rounds of the tournament.