[a] Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. "[89] The pair played their last major tournament together at the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, losing in the quarterfinals. Martina Navratilova then defeated Graf 76, 67, 64 in a US Open semifinal, the first time she had beaten Graf in four years. He claimed that he committed the attack to help Graf reclaim the world No. She and Margaret Court are the only players, female or male, to win three majors in a calendar year five times (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995 and 1996). At Wimbledon, however, Graf captured her third women's crown, this time at Sabatini's expense. "Peter Graf" redirects here. 1, 64, 46, 86 after beating Sabatini in a three-set semifinal. While the Berlin tournament was being played, the largest-circulation German tabloid, Bild, ran a story about an alleged scandal involving Graf's father. 49 . Having won the first three Majors of the year, Djokovic is three-fifths of the way to a . Social invitations on the tour were often declined as Graf's focus was kept on practicing and match play. Nominated and voted the title Mother of the nation in her country, Germany, 2010. The match was the Wimbledon women's singles semi-final between Ms Graf and Kimiko Date. The pair was moderately successful, winning the 1988 Wimbledon Championships together and reaching the finals of the French Open in 1986, 1987 and 1989. Tennis was a demonstration sport during the 1984 Olympic Games. A commemorative plaque outside the venue in Seoul bears testament to the event: Historic Place for Golden Slam. She did not win a tournament but consistently reached tournament finals, semifinals and quarterfinals, with the highlight being her semifinal loss to Navratilova at the US Open. In 1986, she formed a partnership with rival Gabriela Sabatini. Unbeatable. Graf's technique on the forehand was unique and instantly recognizable: generating considerable racquet head speed with her swing, she reached the point of contact late and typically out of the air. At the year-ending Virginia Slims Championships, Graf was upset by Pam Shriver, only her third loss of the year. 1999 Prince of Asturias Award, one of the most important awards of Spain and named after the heir apparent of Spain. Angelique Kerber recalls memories of Steffi Graf at Wimbledon after becoming first German to win trophy since 1996 . The loss deprived her of the Golden Super Slam. 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. (W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (WL) winloss record. 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. Graf lost to Conchita Martnez in her comeback tournament a month later in Philadelphia. Graf's Grand Slam tournament winning streak ended at the French Open, where 17-year-old Spaniard Arantxa Snchez Vicario beat Graf in three sets. She struggled at the German Open in Berlin where she lost a 60 set to the unheralded Sabine Hack before defeating Mary Joe Fernndez and Sabatini in three-set matches to claim her seventh title there in eight years. 3, having racked up a total of 107 tournament victories. 1 . [77][78] In the French Open Graf was again beaten by Amanda Coetzer in straight sets, 61, 64. Last edited on 20 February 2023, at 18:23, BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, Learn how and when to remove this template message, 3 different Grand Slam titles won without losing a set, 2 titles won without losing a set in the same calendar year, Tennis records of the Open Era - women's singles, "Duden | Steffi | Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition", "The 10 most influential players in the history of tennis", "ON TENNIS; Graf Is Best, Right? The US Open was Monica Seles's first Grand Slam event since the 1993 attack, with much anticipation again around a potential Seles-Graf final. Early life. Graf played in her first professional tournament in October 1982 at Filderstadt, Germany. Graf retired at the age of 30 in 1999 while ranked as the world No. In 1988, Graf became the first tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam by winning all four major singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. Graf secured the World 124th position in her first year. Graf's Grand Slam tournament breakthrough came in 1987. who often frustrated opponents with variety and consistency. After Wimbledon, for the first time in my career, I didn't feel like going to a tournament. Next came Wimbledon, where Martina Navratilova had won six straight titles. In the subsequent Amelia Island final on clay, Graf lost her first match of the year to Sabatini but returned to European clay with easy victories at Hamburg and Berlin. [138][139][140] They have two children, a son born in 2001 and a daughter born in 2003. She won there, comfortably beating Helena Sukov in the final after needing three sets to eliminate Gabriela Sabatini and Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. Associations of International Sport Federations, Organising Committees for the Olympic Games. Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams. [63][64], A strained right calf muscle forced Graf to withdraw from the Australian Open. [62] Although Graf ended the year ranked No. She basically became a backhand slice guru ,,, This became only single taint in Graf's tennis career. Seles and Graf met in the final, with Graf winning in three sets, saving a set point in the first set. . She first used the Wilson Pro Staff 7.0 lite, then switched to the Pro Staff 7.5 in 1996 and to the Pro Staff 7.1 in 1998. Stefanie ("Steffi") Graf | Former German Tennis Pro and Champion. [48] In Boca Raton, Florida, Graf reached her first final of the year, where she faced Conchita Martnez for the title. In 2010, Graf participated in the WTT Smash Hits exhibition in Washington, D.C. to support the Elton John AIDS Foundation. All right, yes, there is the winning and, with it, the money, but they come too easily and bring only temporary relief. [103] Graf completely ruled out a return to professional tennis. It was Graf's second consecutive loss to Novotna, and dating back to their 1991 Australian Open quarterfinal match, Jana had won three of their last five meetings. 1 female player and won 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Winner of as many as 22 Grand Slam titles, Steffi's presence was enough to send shivers down the spine of her opponents. She reached a total of 31 singles major finals. She is now a naturalized American citizen, and has even been nominated as one of 2022's Great US Immigrants by Carnegie Corporation of New York. 'The Ten' went one way; you went another", "The greatest female tennis player of the last 50 years: the fans' verdict", "Exclusive Interview with Steve Flink about the career of Chris Evert", "A celebration of Martina Navratilova's multifaceted legacy", "Special events and records at the 1988 Australian Open Tennis Tournament", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steffi_Graf&oldid=1140574067, Golden Slam (4 majors + Olympic gold in same calendar year), Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam in addition to already winning a Grand Slam, 100% match winning percentage in 1 season, 100% match winning percentage in 3 separate seasons, 89.67% (278-32) match winning percentage overall, 5 calendar years winning 3+ Grand Slam titles, Defeated the top 3 seeded players in the same tournament, Reached the final of all four Grand Slams tournaments in a calendar year, Reached the final of all four Grand Slams tournaments in a calendar year three times, 5 years as wire-to-wire (all 52 weeks) No. Grand Slam tournament performance timeline. Her father was arrested in August and was sentenced to 45 months in jail. 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]. This narrow focus meant that Graf, already shy and retiring by nature,[24] made few friends on the tour in her early years, but it led to a steady improvement in her play. 1 Ranking", "Graf wastes no time reaching another final", "Roland-Garros - the 2021 Roland-Garros Tournament official site", "The 1988 French Open: how Agassi arrived, Graf ruled and Wilander won", "TENNIS; Graf Shuts Out Zvereva to Gain French Open Title", "Wimbledon; An Era Ends as Graf Beats Navratilova", "Forget Calendar Slam, "Surface Slam" Almost as Rare", "THE SEOUL GAMES: Women's Tennis: Graf Turns Her Slam Into a Golden One", "SURPRISE! American star Chris Evert, meanwhile, failed to take a set off Graf in three matches. She has appeared in many advertisements and television commercials with Andre Agassi including Canon Inc.[130] and Longines in 2008 (Agassi became Longines ambassador in 2007). There really hasn't been anyone like her since. Selected for European Heroes in 2004 and 2005 by TIME Magazine. The earliest sign that Steffi Graf was going to be one of the sport's all-time winners came at the end of a defeat. 98 in 1983, No. 1 ranking to Martina Hingis and failed to win a Grand Slam title for the first time in ten years in 1997. Steffi Graf was a dominant force in tennis during the late 1980s and for much of the 1990s. [67][68], In personal terms, 1995 was a difficult year for Graf, as she was accused by German authorities of tax evasion in the early years of her career. . [95][96][97], In late 1999 and early 2000, as part of her Farewell Tour, Graf played a series of exhibition matches against former rivals in New Zealand, Japan, Spain, Germany and South Africa. [135][136], From 1992 to 1999, Graf dated racing driver Michael Bartels. In 1988, Graf became only the second tennis player in history to win a Slam on hardcourt, clay, and grass all in the same season. Shortly after the stabbing, during a players meeting at the Italian Open in Rome, 17 of the world's top 25 WTA members voted against preserving Seles' world No. The teenager had taken part at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 when tennis made its Olympic return as a demonstration sport, 60 years after it was dropped from the programme. Graf again lost to Monica Seles in the final of the French Open 67, 46. [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. I have complied some stats . 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. The assailant, a fan of German . [39] In the Boca Raton final, Graf lost the only set she conceded to Chris Evert in their final seven matches.[40]. She returned to win a small tournament at Mahwah just before the US Open where, in one of the most anticipated matches of the year, she encountered Navratilova in a semifinal. Shortly after the US Open, she underwent surgery to remove a bone spur in her right wrist. She was in hard-court action in the capital of the Republic of Korea on 20 September and breezed through the rounds conceding just one set, against the Soviet Unions Larissa Savchenko in the quarter-final before coming up against Sabatini once again in the gold-medal match on 1 October 1988. 124. Graf remains one of the greatest champions in the history of her sport. Starting in the early 1990s, she used the slice almost exclusively in baseline rallies and mostly limited the topspin backhand to passing shots. In the middle of the second set, Graf suffered back spasms while reaching for a ball in the ad court. However, she finished her year with a highlight, winning her first Virginia Slims Championships since 1989 by beating Arantxa Snchez Vicario in the final despite needing painkillers for a back injury. And so many times she was able to absorb her opponent's biggest blows and . [142] The Graf-Agassi family resides in Summerlin, a community in the Las Vegas Valley. The treatment was for a fracture of the cartilage as well as a shortening and partial rupture of the patellar tendon of her left knee. Graf, however, won the tournament in San Antonio, Texas, and retained her title in Miami, where she once again defeated Evert in the final. . Serena uses her hard and powerful groundstrokes to bully her opponents and uses her serve, like Federer, to set up the point before finishing it off . In the fall, Graf won the Volkswagen Card Cup in Leipzig a day before her foot operation, losing only two games to Jana Novotn in the final. After missing almost half of the tour in 1998, Graf lost in the third round at Wimbledon and in the fourth round at the US Open. Her accuracy with the slice, both cross-court and down the line and her ability to skid the ball and keep it low, enabled her to use it as an offensive weapon to set the ball up for her forehand put-aways. steffi graf opponents. [148] In July 2020, The Guardian polled its readers to determine the greatest female tennis player of the past 50 years, and Steffi was the clear favorite, picking up nearly twice as many votes as any other player. According to her coaches Pavel Sloil and Heinz Gnthardt, Graf's superior sense of timing was the key behind the success of her forehand. 1 ranking. Just over 30 years old, Graf retired . She then won her eighth German Open, but there were signs that her form was worsening as she almost lost to Julie Halard in a quarterfinal. [150] Flink said in 2020 that the jury was still out on (Serena) Williams as the greatest ever, but Williams' consistency over the long span did not match that of Graf or Navratilova. Williams VS Graf MATCHES VS ALL OPPONENTS She made it to the final and took the first set against Snchez Vicario but lost the next two sets Sanchez Vicario's last victory over Graf. The US Open ended anti-climactically as Navratilova defeated Graf in the final 76, 61. Victories at Zurich and Brighton preceded the Virginia Slims Championships, where Graf cemented her top-ranked status by beating Navratilova in the four-set final. 3, She was not included in the official year end ranking. In their five previous head-to-head matches, Graf had defeated Martnez each time. [115], Early in her career, Graf wore Dunlop apparel, before signing an endorsement contract with Adidas in 1985. Graf served for the match at 53 in the third set but lost the game and won only three more points in the match. Torture and boredom, boredom and torture, that's how it is for Steffi Graf. Steffi Graf: Steffi Graf has 22 grand slams to her name, most coming during the late 80s and 90s. [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. On 13 April 1986, Graf won her first WTA tournament and beat Evert for the first time in the final of the Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head, South Carolina (she never lost to Evert again, beating her six more times over the next three and a half years). The win elevated Graf to the world No. Defending champion Steffi Graf was seeded first again at the French Open and swiftly went about beating her opponents, dropping only 11 games until the semi-finals.. Up against fourth-seeded Argentine Gabriela Sabatini in the last four, Steffi Graf faced her first real test, but overcame it with ease, winning 6-3, 7-6 to go through to the final. AP Photo/Bruno Mosconi. [107] Graf played in the celebrity doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles before straining her left calf muscle and being replaced by Anna Kournikova. 6 in 1985. Graf defaulted before the 1997 final of this tournament, which is classified as a walkover and, therefore, does not count as a loss on her official record. [22] She began practising on a court at the age of four and played in her first tournament at five. 3, Jana Novotn, before losing in the semifinal to first-seeded Davenport. In the French Open final, Graf defeated Navratilova, who was the world No. On this day in 1999, Steffi Graf bid adieu to the sport just weeks after winning the French Open and reaching the Wimbledon final. In the final, Evert was completely overwhelmed in the first set, losing 6-1. Notable features of Graf's game were her versatility across all playing surfaces, footwork and powerful forehand drive. A bout of rubella forced Graf to miss the first major event of 1992, the Australian Open. At Wimbledon, Graf lost in the semifinals to Zina Garrison, who with this victory broke Graf's string of 13 consecutive major finals. She won five consecutive singles majors (1988 Australian Open to 1989 Australian Open), and seven out of eight, in two calendar years (1988 Australian Open to 1989 US Open, except 1989 French Open). [58] Graf still managed to win San Diego the following month but aggravated a long-time back injury in beating Snchez Vicario in the final. [141] Agassi has said that he and Graf are not pushing their children toward becoming tennis players. Her winning streak (unbeaten since the 1989 French Open loss to Arantxa Snchez) continued with victories in Tokyo, Amelia Island, and Hamburg. For the German painter, see. Having suffered from leg cramps since the middle of the third set, Graf ran off the court seconds after match point to seek medical treatment. Opel Corsa Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary", "Steffi Graf is Longines' Newest Abassador", "SRK and Steffi Graf to represent Kerala tourism", "Steffi: proof that the rich don't get to heaven", "The Trials of Steffi Graf: with her father in jail and her own innocence being questioned, the world's best woman tennis player has finally been forced to take control of her life", "Tennis: Agassi taking different tact [sic] with fatherhood,", "Tennis legend Steffi Graf talks Royal Ascot and her career to HELLO! 667 (25-02-23) Best Rank. She teamed with Ansley Cargill in women's doubles against Anna Kournikova and Likhovtseva but lost 52. She was unstoppable. Then on 11 September in New York, Graf became the first woman to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year since Australias Margaret Smith-Court in 1970. [8] Furthermore, she is the only tennis player, male or female, to have won each major tournament at least four times. Four Grand Slam wins and an Olympic title in the same year a feat that no male or female player had achieved before or has done since. June 4, 2020 marks the 32nd anniversary of Steffi Graf's ruthless lesson in the 1998 French Open final with Natasha Zvereva on the receiving end. Her toughest battle came against rising star Martina Hingis in the semifinal, with Hingis unable to convert on five set points. [116][13] Graf stated that grass was her favorite surface to play on, while clay was her least favorite. Sela said: Is it possible to have another 1988 Golden Grand Slam Steffi Graf: yeah sure, anything's possible, like having all eight planets aligned in the solar system. The 1995 Wimbledon final is regarded as one of the most dramatic women's major finals in history as Graf and Snchez Vicario battled in a tight third set that included a 16-minute long, 13-deuce game on Sanchez Vicario's serve at 55. She hit the sliced backhand harder and with more underspin than any woman I have ever seen. Suffering from food poisoning, she had struggled to beat Monica Seles in their semifinal 63, 36, 63 and said that she had menstrual cramps in the final. [68] 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. Along with Boris Becker, Graf was considered instrumental in popularizing tennis in Germany, where it remains one of the foremost national sports.[18][19][20]. LEAVE A . WATCH THIS STORY: When Roger Federer toyed his opponent so bad, he asked for advice from Andre Agassi in the crowd Wimbledon championships. Graf was trailing Martina Navratilova in the final 75, 20 before winning the match 57, 62, 61. Graf warmed up for the US Open with easy tournament victories in San Diego and Mahwah. Her career prize-money earnings totalled US$21,895,277 (a record until Lindsay Davenport surpassed this amount in January 2008). [21] Her father, an aspiring tennis coach, first introduced her to the game, teaching his three-year-old daughter how to swing a wooden racket in the family's living room. She lost her first round match 64, 60 to Tracy Austin, a two-time US Open champion and former world No. [145], In 2001, Graf indicated that she preferred to be called Stefanie instead of Steffi. In the meantime, she lost surprisingly to Nicole Bradtke of Australia in a Fed Cup match on clay before winning the Acura Classic in San Diego and the Canadian Open in Toronto in preparation for the US Open. 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. In her professional tennis career, Steffi Graf spent 377 weeks as the No. The assailant, a fan of German tennis star Steffi Graf, Top women's tennis player Monica Seles is stabbed by a deranged German man during a match in Hamburg. She won her first French Open title since 1988 with a three-set victory over Mary Joe Fernndez in the final. In 1996, Steffi Graf was famously proposed to by a fan as she was getting ready to serve. Shortly after winning in Tokyo, Graf injured her right thumb while cross-country skiing in Switzerland and subsequently withdrew from the Virginia Slims of Florida and the Lipton Championships. She survived an intense three-set battle with Helena Sukova in the semis, breaking in the tenth and final game to win the third set 64. [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). 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. Though she lost the game to opponent Tracy Austin by 6-4, 6-0, this did very little to dishearten the young blood. She played Jelena Dokic in Christchurch, New Zealand, Amanda Coetzer in Durban, South Africa, and her former rival Arantxa Snchez Vicario in Zaragoza, Spain. Titles. She had just lost a three-set semifinal to No. She is the only singles player (male or female) to have achieved a Grand Slam across three surfaces (grass, clay, and hard courts). Graf did not lose a set during the tournament and lost a total of only 29 games. Date biografice. Steffi Graf's 22 Grand Slam singles titles put her second on the list of major wins in the female competition since the introduction of the Open Era in 1968 . [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. [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. She and Agassi, her husband, were on Team Elton John, which competed against Team Billie Jean King. . Began playing Tennis: 1973 Turned Professional: 18.10.1982. 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. 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. Graf, Kerber's idol . [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. Graf's schedule was closely controlled by her father, who limited her play so that she would not burn out. [105] It was the first time in 14 years Graf had played Navratilova. In addition to being great as players, they were also great as husband and wife. ), At the start of her first full professional year in 1983, Graf was 13 years old and ranked world No. [122] Graf's racquets were strung at 29 kilograms (64 pounds), significantly above the 50-60 pound range recommended by Wilson. 1 ranking while she was sidelined. Graf then lost to Navratilova 75, 63 in the Wimbledon final, her first loss of the year. Some noted observers, such as Margaret Court, suggested that Graf could achieve the feat a couple more times. [77] [151], Graf was voted the ITF World Champion in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996.
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