One was 19 and one is pushing 34. Graf's Grand Slam tournament breakthrough came in 1987. Working with her father and then-coach Pavel Sloil, Graf typically practiced for up to four hours a day, often heading straight from airports to practice courts. 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. 1 female player and won 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Martina revolutionized women's tennis with her hardcore workout regimen to become more fit and stronger than her opponents. 1 Novak Djokovic could do the same if he wins gold, as could Roger Federer if he is involved in the Games. She lost her first round match 64, 60 to Tracy Austin, a two-time US Open champion and former world No. She had to overcome three difficult three set matches en route to this final, against Mariaan De Swardt in the second round, Venus Williams in the quarterfinals and Mirjana Lui in the semifinals. On 24 January 1988, on a Rebound Ace surface on Centre Court in Melbourne, Graf took on Evert in the final of the Australian Open. Shortly after the US Open, she underwent surgery to remove a bone spur in her right wrist. At Wimbledon, Graf lost in the semifinals to Zina Garrison, who with this victory broke Graf's string of 13 consecutive major finals. Though she lost the game to opponent Tracy Austin by 6-4, 6-0, this did very little to dishearten the young blood. The German, born on 14 June 1969 in Mannheim, was already showing the qualities that would lead to her being world no. Decision", "TENNIS - For Seles, the Wound Still Hurts", "Troubled WTA Tour limps through '94 season", "Tennis: Graf footloose and pain-free: Germany's world No 1 in intimidating form at the Australian Open", "Pierce Applies The Pressure To Upset Graf", "This Date in French Open History: June 2", "McNeil Ousts Graf in an Upset for the Ages", "Graf Set for Her Comeback, Pained Mainly by Questions", "U.S.OPEN '94 - Sanchez Smiles As Graf Winces", "Pierce tops Graf; Navratilova loses last", "Calf injury forces Graf out of Australian Open", "In a Classic, Graf Captures Wimbledon On Sheer Will", "Graf's Year Is Difficult One Till the End, but Successful", "Steffi Graf Investigated for Tax Evasion", "Tennis;Graf finds real world full of ups and downs", "Peter Graf Is Sentenced To Prison in Tax Case", "OLYMPICS;Injuries Force Sampras and Graf to Skip Games", "Amanda Coetzer - Tennis Player from South Africa - Tennis-Heroes.net", "Surgery on Graf's Knee Requires a Long Layoff", "Wimbledon '99: The Steffi Graf Interview: Time for a golden goodbye? Tennis was a demonstration sport during the 1984 Olympic Games. 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. At Tokyo 2020, current world no. Graf retired at the age of 30 in 1999 while ranked as the world No. . Their bond was unbreakable, and as Steffi became a force in tennis, Peter was right beside hercontrolling her life and business off the court while she controlled the rhythms on it. 49 . Graf defeated Mary Joe Fernndez in the final of the Australian Open, which was her eighth Grand Slam singles title in the last nine she contested. The loss deprived her of the Golden Super Slam. 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. . Despite their differences, their careers, on and off the court . [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 won 7 Wimbledon, 6 French Open, 5 US Open and 4 Australian Open . It actually had several major flaws, especially based on today's understanding of stroke. At Wimbledon, however, Graf captured her third women's crown, this time at Sabatini's expense. 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. This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 20:01. Having won the first three Majors of the year, Djokovic is three-fifths of the way to a . 1 ranking for the first time in her career, a ranking she would hold for the next 186 consecutive weeks, a record (it was tied by Serena Williams in 2016). Graf has a 20863 (76.8%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.[1]. [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. In October, Graf defeated Sabatini in an exhibition match in Mannheim, Germany, winning both of their sets. [16] When asked in an interview to name the greatest players of all time, Serena Williams stated Graf and Roger Federer. She retired from tennis in 1999. First Grand Slam victory of the year for Graf: 6-1, 7-6. 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. After several months injury lay off, Graf returned to play in the German Open in Berlin in front of a home crowd and had the worst defeat of her career in the quarterfinal, when Amanda Coetzer beat her in just 56 minutes 60, 61. Grand Slams) main-draw, Olympic Games and Fed Cup are included in winloss records. . Graf then went on to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before losing to Monica Seles in two sets. Since Graf skipped the Italian Open, she did not take part in the vote. Stefanie Graf was born on 14 June 1969, in Mannheim, Baden-Wrttemberg, West Germany, to Heidi Schalk and car-and-insurance salesman Peter Graf (18 June 1938 30 November 2013). She was one of the most fierce Tennis stars of her generation and tasted great success on every court. Natasha Zvereva, the 13th seed had shocked Martina Navratilova with a straight sets fourth round . Grand Slam tournament performance timeline. She won her first French Open title since 1988 with a three-set victory over Mary Joe Fernndez in the final. She and Agassi, her husband, were on Team Elton John, which competed against Team Billie Jean King. 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. Stefanie ("Steffi") Graf | Former German Tennis Pro and Champion. [144], In 1991, the Steffi Graf Youth Tennis Center in Leipzig was dedicated to her. 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. "[89] The pair played their last major tournament together at the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, losing in the quarterfinals. She is better than them all. Graf is the first German to win the Spain's 'Prince of Asturias' award. 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. 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. 22 in 1984, and No. Serena was 17. [101] She was also in Berlin to host a charity gala, as well as inaugurating a tennis stadium renamed the "Steffi Graf Stadion". First Grand Slam victory of the year for Graf: 6-1, 7-6. [47] She would work with him for the remainder of her career. who often frustrated opponents with variety and consistency. [74] Graf had led 41 in the second set tiebreak, only to lose six points in a row and force a decider. I had one day to turn around, get home, change and get on the flight to Seoul. Just over 30 years old, Graf retired . (Twelve years later, Graf defeated Austin 60, 60 during a second round match at the Evert Cup in Indian Wells, California, which was their second and last match against each other. This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Steffi Graf. [65] She came back in February, winning four consecutive tournaments in Paris, Delray Beach, Miami and Houston. When she was nine years old, her family moved to the neighboring town of Brhl. [143] Graf's mother and her brother also live there. 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 Lindsay Davenport en route to the Philadelphia title. 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. 3 at that time and said, "I have done everything I wanted to do in tennis. The American then took her opponent to a tie-break in the second set, eventually going down 7-3. 1999 Germany Television Award for her outstanding performance as tennis player and her importance to the German public. TMF. She was unstoppable. Began playing Tennis: 1973 Turned Professional: 18.10.1982. The world of tennis is still waiting for another player capable of such a feat in the same calendar year! Since then, four players managed a 271 winloss record, meaning all of them failed to win the Grand Slam: Graf in 1989 and 1993, Martina Hingis in 1997, Roger Federer in 2006 and Novak Djokovic in both 2015 and 2021. 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. 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. Her parents are Heidi Schalk and Peter Graf. That was the last competitive match Graf and Snchez Vicario would ever play against one another. "Steffi Graf is the best all-around player," said Evert, whose name is also mentioned as one of the all-time greats. Her overall record in 56 Grand Slam events was 27832 (90 percent) (8410 at the French Open, 747 at Wimbledon, 739 at the US Open, and 476 at the Australian Open). [66] In August Monica Seles made her much anticipated return to tennis at the Canadian Open. After breaking Sabatini's serve to even the third set at 66, Graf defeated Sabatini by winning the next two games to take the match 64, 36, 86. 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. The weeks following Wimbledon [in 1999] weren't easy for me. She subsequently withdrew from the Pan Pacific Open and had arthroscopic surgery performed on her left knee. After winning two more indoor tournaments at Zurich and Brighton, she failed once again in the Virginia Slims Championships, losing her quarterfinal to Novotn. [36] Graf also won her only Grand Slam doubles title that yearat Wimbledon partnering Sabatiniand picked up a women's doubles Olympic bronze medal. In an interview with Stern magazine in July 1990, Graf stated, "I could not fight as usual."[46]. Her birth name is Stefanie Maria Graf and she is currently 51 years old. Novak Djokovic has arrived in Japan for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, and he is looking as confident as ever. Graf later stated it was the best tennis she had ever played in a Grand Slam final. Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams. Illness caused her to miss Wimbledon,[26] and an accident where she broke a toe several weeks later also curtailed her play. Serena did that only for a few tournaments in her career while Steffi did . Graf did not lose a set during the tournament and lost a total of only 29 games. [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. 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 was born as Stefanie Maria Graf on 14th June 1969 in West Germany.
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