The Trials of Steffi Graf. This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 20:01. [83], At the French Open, Graf reached her first Grand Slam final in three years and fought back from a set and twice from a break down in the second set to defeat the top ranked Hingis in three sets for a memorable victory. And Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, arguably the most accomplished sports couple there ever was, had good reason to be on campus that day. In an unusual arrangement, she paired with her coaches Pavel Sloil at Wimbledon in 1988 and Heinz Gnthardt in 1992 and 1996, also at Wimbledon. This time, Navratilova beat Graf 76, 63, 62. 1 German tennis player. [88] Sabatini said of the partnership: "doubles is all about communicating with each other, and we didn't communicate that much. [79] Only one week later, she underwent reconstructive knee surgery in Vienna and subsequently missed the 1997 Wimbledon and US Open championships. Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi met for the first time during a tournament.Andre Agassi had been secretly pining for her since 1990, but she showed no interest in him.. At that time, Steffi Graf was dating Michael Bartels, a racing driver. [80][81] . Steffi Graf is seen as one of tennis' best ever players, winning 22 Grand Slams but 1988 was the year that will never be beaten. She has a younger brother, Michael. 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. [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. 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. Djokovic is now into his 378th week as the world number one, surpassing Steffi Graf's record for the most weeks at the top of the sport, a feat that prompted some of his young rivals to express . But the world of tennis is still waiting for another player capable of securing a Golden Slam in one year. At the French Open, Graf successfully defended her title by defeating Natasha Zvereva 60, 60 in a 34-minute final. She was named the 1988 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. 1 was in peerless form on the clay courts of Roland Garros. In the Miami final, she lost her first set of the yearto Natasha Zverevaafter winning 54 consecutive sets. Whether this scandal affected Graf's form is open to debate. [33] Zvereva, who had eliminated Martina Navratilova in the fourth round, won only thirteen points in the match.[33]. [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. [65] She came back in February, winning four consecutive tournaments in Paris, Delray Beach, Miami and Houston. The world of tennis is still waiting for another player capable of such a feat in the same calendar year! 1988 French Open. Graf lost to Conchita Martnez in her comeback tournament a month later in Philadelphia. And each time the opponent threw a problem her way, she . Though she lost the game to opponent Tracy Austin by 6-4, 6-0, this did very little to dishearten the young blood. [123] In 2006, she signed an endorsement deal with Head. Soon after, she split with her long-time coach, Pavel Sloil. 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. At the year-ending Virginia Slims Championships, Graf was upset by Pam Shriver, only her third loss of the year. . 1 . Williams VS Graf MATCHES VS ALL OPPONENTS used to be curious about one player who will make the women's singles Grand Slam finals as the other name was always Steffi Graf. In 1988, there was no bronze medal match, and both beaten semifinalists received bronze medals. She ended the 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995, and 1996 tennis seasons as the worlds top-ranked player. "[89] The pair played their last major tournament together at the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, losing in the quarterfinals. 1 Novak Djokovic could do the same if he wins gold, as could Roger Federer if he is involved in the Games. (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. Steffi Graf vs Serena Williams vs Martina Navratilova - Who is the Greatest Female tennis player of all time? Stefanie Maria Steffi" Graf 1969614 GOAT She then beat Snchez Vicario in the finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon. [63][64], A strained right calf muscle forced Graf to withdraw from the Australian Open. [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. Her birth name is Stefanie Maria Graf and she is currently 51 years old. Even though she lost the opening set, Graf went on to prevail in three sets. 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). 2 (21-06-10) Titles. [48] In Boca Raton, Florida, Graf reached her first final of the year, where she faced Conchita Martnez for the title. It just felt something special that I was going to, recalls Graf. In their five previous head-to-head matches, Graf had defeated Martnez each time. [74] Graf had led 41 in the second set tiebreak, only to lose six points in a row and force a decider. . It is true that Graf had one of the best forehands of her era, but that doesn't mean that it is mechanically perfect. Unbeatable. Five months later, the world no. 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 . Her toughest battle came against rising star Martina Hingis in the semifinal, with Hingis unable to convert on five set points. Tennis H2H Venus Williams vs Steffi Graf. Stefanie Graf was awarded with the Golden Sports Pyramid, the highest distinction of the German Sports Fund in Herzogenaurach by the Adidas chairman Herbert Hainer on 24 June 2008. That doesn't mean it will happen. Official match time was 34 minutes, which charitably included two minutes of rain delay. She lost a lengthy one-set singles match to Clijsters and also the mixed doubles.[106]. Zvereva endured a magical run at Roland Garros that year, but things unraveled in the final when she came up against a Steffi Graf that was in destructive mode. The American then took her opponent to a tie-break in the second set, eventually going down 7-3. 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). Sport - Tennis: Novak Djokovic equals Steffi Graf's record for most weeks as world number one: Novak Djokovic equals Steffi Graf's record for most weeks as world. Steffi Graf on how social media impacts the mental health of children. [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. 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. Graf lost twice to Sabatini during the spring, once on hardcourts in Boca Raton, Florida, and once on clay at Amelia Island, Florida. 3. First Grand Slam victory of the year for Graf: 6-1, 7-6. Going back in time, one can recall the right-handed player who fearlessly outplayed her opponents. "Peter Graf" redirects here. [92][93], Graf also occasionally played mixed doubles, although she never won a title. 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. According to her coaches Pavel Sloil and Heinz Gnthardt, Graf's superior sense of timing was the key behind the success of her forehand. It was the days when the Williams . In the middle of the second set, Graf suffered back spasms while reaching for a ball in the ad court. Ranking. AP Photo/Bruno Mosconi. The weeks following Wimbledon [in 1999] weren't easy for me. [59][60] She began to wear a back brace and was unsure about playing the US Open but elected to play while receiving treatment and stretching for two hours before each match. Her name was Martina Hingis. [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. Grand Slams) main-draw, Olympic Games and Fed Cup are included in winloss records. Selected for European Heroes in 2004 and 2005 by TIME Magazine. . Four consecutive indoor tournament victories in the autumn helped improve her season, but for the third consecutive year, she failed to win the Virginia Slims Championships, where she lost in the first round to Lori McNeil. n civa ani ajunge . 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. Graf's father had approached Gnthardt during the 1991 Virginia Slims Championships. Monica Seles was an opponent in six major finals and the duo spilt at 3-3. Graf, however, won the tournament in San Antonio, Texas, and retained her title in Miami, where she once again defeated Evert in the final. [101] She was also in Berlin to host a charity gala, as well as inaugurating a tennis stadium renamed the "Steffi Graf Stadion". Graf again missed the Australian Open after undergoing surgery in December 1995 to remove bone splinters from her left foot. She subsequently withdrew from the Pan Pacific Open and had arthroscopic surgery performed on her left knee. When she was nine years old, her family moved to the neighboring town of Brhl. Graf reached 13 consecutive singles major finals from the 1987 French Open to the 1990 French Open, winning nine of them. It would also be the last loss Graf would ever have to Novotna in a match she completed (she did have a loss after withdrawing with injury after the first set of a late 1996 match). [122] Graf's racquets were strung at 29 kilograms (64 pounds), significantly above the 50-60 pound range recommended by Wilson. Graf then won in Leipzig, with her 500th career victory coming in a quarterfinal against Judith Wiesner. In 1984, she first gained international attention when she almost upset the tenth seed, Jo Durie of the United Kingdom, in a fourth round Centre Court match at Wimbledon. Steffi Graf was already world number one, and just shy of 19 years old, when she began the 1988 season. [101] She was beaten in two out of three matches, with each match being one set. 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. 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. On 13 August 1999, shortly after retiring with a strained hamstring from a second round match against Amy Frazier in San Diego, Graf announced her retirement from the women's tour at age 30. After breaking Novotn's serve, Graf won the next four games to take the match 76, 16, 64. At the 1999 French Open, Graf and Agassi . 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 . Speculation was rife at the beginning of 1989 about the possibility of Graf winning another Grand Slam. 1 for 186 consecutive weeks from 17 August 1987: incredible footwork, a devastating forehand, an effective backhand and a powerful, reliable serve an all-round game that proved successful on every surface. Graf ended 1989 with an 862 match record and the loss of only 12 sets. Yet again, she dropped a minimal number of games on the DecoTurf surface at Flushing Meadows and took full advantage of Everts forfeit in the semi-final. . [44] Graf briefly regained the top ranking after winning at Wimbledon but lost it again after her loss to Navratilova at the US Open. SANCHEZ BEATS GRAF 17-YEAR-OLD WINS TITLE", "TENNIS - Sanchez Surprises Graf to Win the French Open", "Graf and Navratilova March to a Showdown", "WTA | Players | Head to Head | Steffi Graf", "TENNIS - Seles Struggles With Injury and W.T.A. [152] She was voted the WTA Player of the Year in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996. 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. 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). [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. Her father was arrested in August and was sentenced to 45 months in jail. [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. 1 ranking. [61] She took the following nine weeks off, returning only for the Virginia Slims Championships where she lost in straight sets to Pierce in the quarterfinal. . She played Jelena Dokic in Christchurch, New Zealand, Amanda Coetzer in Durban, South Africa, and her former rival Arantxa Snchez Vicario in Zaragoza, Spain. Argentinas Gabriela Sabatini reached her first ever final, but Graf secured a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory. At Wimbledon, Graf lost in the semifinals to Zina Garrison, who with this victory broke Graf's string of 13 consecutive major finals. . A mixture of injury problems, personal difficulties, and loss of form made 1991 a tough year for Graf. The win elevated Graf to the world No. She teamed with Ansley Cargill in women's doubles against Anna Kournikova and Likhovtseva but lost 52. 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. In 1996, Steffi Graf was famously proposed to by a fan as she was getting ready to serve. " ( . 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. That was the last competitive match Graf and Snchez Vicario would ever play against one another. Jaz Elle Agassi is best known as being a daughter of former tennis couple Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.. Parents Wedding. Talk Tennis Guru. to overwhelm her opponents. Fernandez had two break points to take a 30 and double break lead in the third set. She repeated the feat in 1993, 1995, and 1996. (not considered in winloss records). 1988 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, 1996 Most Exciting Player of the Year, by the WTA, 1998 Most Exciting Player of the Year, by the WTA, 1999 Most Exciting Player of the Year, by the WTA. (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. 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. Five months later, the world no. [141] Agassi has said that he and Graf are not pushing their children toward becoming tennis players. 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. [73] Graf came back to the tour in March, winning back to back titles in Indian Wells and Miami, followed by a record ninth title at the German Open in May and a quarterfinal defeat in Rome against Martina Hingis. Serena Williams, who will face Kerber in the final, beat Steffi Graf for the title at Indian Wells, Calif., in 1999. The loss deprived her of the Golden Super Slam. Steffi Graf with the Wimbledon trophy in 1989 after defeating Martina Navratilova 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-1 in the final. 1 for 186 consecutive weeks (from August 1987 to March 1991; tied with Serena Williams, a record in the women's game) and a record total 377 weeks overall. TMF. Martina Navratilova then defeated Graf 76, 67, 64 in a US Open semifinal, the first time she had beaten Graf in four years. Steffi Graf, a Tennis champ is married to husband Andre Agassi with two children. Graf then went on to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before losing to Monica Seles in two sets. 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 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a record 377 total weeks. [143] Graf's mother and her brother also live there. [104] As part of the event, billed as "Dream Match 2008", she defeated Martina Navratilova in a one-set affair 87, with Graf winning a tiebreaker 105. [10] Graf's athletic ability and aggressive game played from the baseline have been credited with developing the modern style of play that has come to dominate today's game. Only results in WTA Tour (incl. 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. Early life. On this day in 1999, Steffi Graf bid adieu to the sport just weeks after winning the French Open and reaching the Wimbledon final. From 1991 until the end of her career, Graf would only play doubles sporadically, forming short-term partnerships with a variety of players, including Lori McNeil, Anke Huber and her best friends on the tour, Rennae Stubbs, Patricia Tarabini and Ines Gorrochategui. [39] In the Boca Raton final, Graf lost the only set she conceded to Chris Evert in their final seven matches.[40]. 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. Voted Most admirable German woman by Amica magazine, 2005. The similarities and differences between Steffi Graf in 1988 and Serena Williams in 2015. Voted Germany's Sportswoman of the Century in 1999 by the German press. 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. [98][99] It was Graf and Snchez Vicario's first head-to-head meeting since 1996. [115], Early in her career, Graf wore Dunlop apparel, before signing an endorsement contract with Adidas in 1985. At Wimbledon, after struggling through early-round three-setters against Mariaan de Swardt and Patty Fendick, she easily defeated Natasha Zvereva in the quarterfinal, Sabatini in the semifinal, and Seles in the final, 62, 61, with Seles playing in almost complete silence because of widespread media and player criticism of her grunting. Graf did not lose a set the whole tournament. Notable features of Graf's game were her versatility across all playing surfaces, footwork and powerful forehand drive. Tennis was a demonstration sport during the 1984 Olympic Games. While the Berlin tournament was being played, the largest-circulation German tabloid, Bild, ran a story about an alleged scandal involving Graf's father. She had some amazing rivalries with Hall of Fame opponents such as Navratilova, Evert, Sabatini and Seles. 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 remains one of the greatest champions in the history of her sport. thesportslegends. n 1973 Steffi avea 3 ani cnd a luat prima oar n Brhl (Baden) o rachet de tenis n mn. I was not having fun anymore. All Rights Reserved. [14][13], An exceptionally versatile competitor, Graf remains the only player, male or female, to have won the calendar-year Grand Slam on three surfaces or to have won each Grand Slam at least four times. And so many times she was able to absorb her opponent's biggest blows and . 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. She won 7 Wimbledon, 6 French Open, 5 US Open and 4 Australian Open . Graf reached 13 consecutive major singles finals, from the 1987 French Open through to . Just over 30 years old, Graf retired . 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. 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. She also . Her glittering career saw her occupy the world no.1 spot for a total of 377 weeks (a record), including a run of 186 consecutive weeks between August 1987 and March 1991. Graf, Kerber's idol . [36] Graf also won her only Grand Slam doubles title that yearat Wimbledon partnering Sabatiniand picked up a women's doubles Olympic bronze medal. Prosecutors dropped their case against Graf in 1997, when she agreed to pay a fine of 1.3million Deutsche Marks to the government and an unspecified charity.[72]. In 2015, Graf was the recipient of the International Club's Jean Borotra Sportsmanship Award. Graf then won three consecutive indoor titles at Tokyo, Zurich, and Brighton, before once again contending with Navratilova at the season-ending Virginia Slims Championships in New York. [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. 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. [32] That was the shortest-ever and most one-sided Grand Slam final ever and the only double bagel in a Major final since 1911. . 29 Jan Tennis Norge . 49 . 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. Steffi Graf, byname of Stephanie Maria Graf, (born June 14, 1969, Brhl, West Germany [now in Germany]), German tennis player who dominated women's tennis in the late 1980s and '90s, winning 22 Grand Slam singles titles. [28][29][30][31] The official time of the match given on the scoresheet was 34 minutes; however, just 32 minutes of that was spent on the court, as a rain break split the match into two periods of play, of nine and 23 minutes. 1 player. 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. 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). 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. "Steffi Graf is the best all-around player," said Evert, whose name is also mentioned as one of the all-time greats. 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%: . The assailant, a fan of German . [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. [154] Her unprecedented Golden Slam saw her receive the 1988 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. But Vicario took the first set and Graf took the second. Winner of as many as 22 Grand Slam titles, Steffi's presence was enough to send shivers down the spine of her opponents. [133], In 1997, she left the Catholic Church, citing personal reasons. After losing a fifth straight time to Sabatini in Amelia Island, Florida, Graf again defeated Seles in the Hamburg final. 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. Venus Williams won her first Games titles 19 years ago, and she hasnt finished yet! 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. 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. [62] Although Graf ended the year ranked No. 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. Chosen by World Economic Forum As Young Global Leader for 2008, Godmother of the Navigator of The Seas (Royal Caribbean Cruiselines), 2002. Steffi Graf collided against Spain's Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the finals of the 1995 Wimbledon. [47] She would work with him for the remainder of her career. Graf had complained of an issue with her left knee but showed little trouble outplaying her opponent. 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? 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. 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. The US Open ended anti-climactically as Navratilova defeated Graf in the final 76, 61. [108] She was ranked world No. "[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. Just Don't Ask Her", "The Shadow of Steffi Graf: Before Serena, Women's Tennis Had Another Unconquerable Force ", "Remembering What Made Steffi Graf a Tennis Legend", "73 Questions with Serena Williams | Vogue", "Tennis in Reunified Germany: Then and Now The Tennis Island", "Serving Her Country A Grand Slam May Have Brought West Germany's Steffi Graf Fame And Fortune, But To The Delight Of Her Countrymen Who've Watched Her Climb To The Top, She Remains 'one Of Them', "Steffi's father Peter Graf dies after cancer battle", "Both on and Off Court, Graf Has Come a Long Way in Past Year", "Tennis Roundup: Mysterious Illness Forces Graf to Withdraw From Wimbledon", "Graf Defeats Evert, Gains No. Kerber's opponent will be the defending champion, . 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. Her winning streak (unbeaten since the 1989 French Open loss to Arantxa Snchez) continued with victories in Tokyo, Amelia Island, and Hamburg. In addition to being great as players, they were also great as husband and wife. She was one of the most fierce Tennis stars of her generation and tasted great success on every court. More than two years elapsed before Seles competed again. Date biografice. In February 2000, Graf played against Kimiko Date at Nagoya Rainbow Hall in Tokyo, winning in three sets. '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.