[142] The Graf-Agassi family resides in Summerlin, a community in the Las Vegas Valley. She subsequently withdrew from the Pan Pacific Open and had arthroscopic surgery performed on her left knee. . [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. Answer (1 of 4): It isn't hard to replicate Steffi Graf's forehand, it's just not optimal. Steffi Graf was a dominant force in tennis during the late 1980s and for much of the 1990s. Steffi Graf Youth Tennis Center was founded and dedicated October 1991 in Leipzig, Germany.Founder and Chairperson of Children for Tomorrow, a non-profit foundation with the goal of implementing and developing projects to support children who have been traumatized by war or other crises, and she is directly involved in the running of the . No medals were awarded as this was not an official Olympic event.[23]. She lost a lengthy one-set singles match to Clijsters and also the mixed doubles.[106]. WATCH THIS STORY: When Roger Federer toyed his opponent so bad, he asked for advice from Andre Agassi in the crowd Wimbledon championships. n 1973 Steffi avea 3 ani cnd a luat prima oar n Brhl (Baden) o rachet de tenis n mn. 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. 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. 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). [citation needed] In the year of Graf's retirement, Billie Jean King said, "Steffi [Graf] is definitely the greatest women's tennis player of all time. [17] Graf married former world No. We would just say the basic things, but nothing else. 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). [74] Graf had led 41 in the second set tiebreak, only to lose six points in a row and force a decider. [144], In 1991, the Steffi Graf Youth Tennis Center in Leipzig was dedicated to her. Highly emotional and sensitive, with a . [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. 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. [151], Graf was voted the ITF World Champion in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996. [154] Her unprecedented Golden Slam saw her receive the 1988 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. Graf began playing tennis with the encouragement of her father, who became her coach. 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. Seles and Graf met in the final, with Graf winning in three sets, saving a set point in the first set. Steffi Graf with the Wimbledon trophy in 1989 after defeating Martina Navratilova 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-1 in the final. 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. The match was notable for its dramatic ending. 1 ranking while she was sidelined. 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. That year Graf lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open in straight sets to Amanda Coetzer. In the Miami final, she lost her first set of the yearto Natasha Zverevaafter winning 54 consecutive sets. 1 ranking for the first time in 22 months. After breaking Novotn's serve, Graf won the next four games to take the match 76, 16, 64. Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis played out a thrilling final at the 1999 French Open, with the former winning 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. Her name was Martina Hingis. It was 1986, and Graf was 17. 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. 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 . 1 Lindsay Davenport en route to the Philadelphia title. Graf's father had approached Gnthardt during the 1991 Virginia Slims Championships. She won no titles during the next three years, but her ranking climbed steadily to world No. Once again, she reached the final without conceding a single set. Steffi Graf and Serena Williams played just twice. 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. At the end of the year, the municipality of Brhl, her hometown, gave her the title of honorary citizen. 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. Stefanie Maria "Steffi" Graf; 14. 1969, , ) . Graf then lost a closely contested final to Monica Seles, 26, 63, 810. Voted The best female role model in sports in a survey by Barclays, sponsors of the Premier League, 2010. Graf lost twice to Sabatini during the spring, once on hardcourts in Boca Raton, Florida, and once on clay at Amelia Island, Florida. . She would either destroy opponents, clinically and . 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. [98][99] It was Graf and Snchez Vicario's first head-to-head meeting since 1996. Graf then lost to Navratilova 75, 63 in the Wimbledon final, her first loss of the year. In an interview with Stern magazine in July 1990, Graf stated, "I could not fight as usual."[46]. Natasha Zvereva, the 13th seed had shocked Martina Navratilova with a straight sets fourth round . That doesn't mean it will happen. Despite their differences, their careers, on and off the court . This was not a first-round sacrifice, an opponent drawn at random. Kerber's opponent will be the defending champion, . Her rivalries with Yugoslavias Monica Seles and Spains Arantxa Snchez Vicario in the 1980s and 1990s have gone down in tennis folklore. Her year continued indifferently with losses in three of her first four tournaments, including a semifinal loss to Jana Novotn in Chicago. 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). Graf is the only female athlete in the list of Forbes Top-30 Most recognizable and marketable athletes in 1995. 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. Chicago was notable, however, for being the first tournament Graf played with her new coach, former Swiss player Heinz Gnthardt. Graf, Kerber's idol . Though she did not win any title for the . [36] Graf also won her only Grand Slam doubles title that yearat Wimbledon partnering Sabatiniand picked up a women's doubles Olympic bronze medal. Monica Seles was an opponent in six major finals and the duo spilt at 3-3. [22] She began practising on a court at the age of four and played in her first tournament at five. It is true that Graf had one of the best forehands of her era, but that doesn't mean that it is mechanically perfect. A worthy opponent, she is an exceptional and versatile player to have dominated the international women's tennis scene for a long time. Her gold medal came after victories in the Grand Slam tournaments at Melbourne, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and New York, giving rise to a new term: the Golden Slam. [101] She was also in Berlin to host a charity gala, as well as inaugurating a tennis stadium renamed the "Steffi Graf Stadion". She also . After losing a fifth straight time to Sabatini in Amelia Island, Florida, Graf again defeated Seles in the Hamburg final. Seles defeated Graf at the Australian Open 46, 63, 62. They have two children. Graf again lost to Monica Seles in the final of the French Open 67, 46. The loss deprived her of the Golden Super Slam. [16] When asked in an interview to name the greatest players of all time, Serena Williams stated Graf and Roger Federer. She was named the 1988 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. Notable features of Graf's game were her versatility across all playing surfaces, footwork and powerful forehand drive. [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. This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Steffi Graf. 6 in 1985. Martina revolutionized women's tennis with her hardcore workout regimen to become more fit and stronger than her opponents. 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland. 3, Jana Novotn, before losing in the semifinal to first-seeded Davenport. [115], She built her powerful and accurate serve up to 183km/h (114mph), making it one of the fastest serves in women's tennis and was a capable volleyer. Voted Most admirable German woman by Amica magazine, 2005. [8] Furthermore, she is the only tennis player, male or female, to have won each major tournament at least four times. TMF. [43] In the final, Navratilova led 63, 42 before Graf rallied to win 36, 75, 61 for her third Grand Slam singles title of the year. "[87], From the beginning of her career until 1990, Graf regularly played doubles matches in Grand Slams and other tournaments, winning a total of 11 doubles titles. [135][136], From 1992 to 1999, Graf dated racing driver Michael Bartels. Vicario was the no 2 seed while Graf was ranked no 1. 29 Jan Tennis Norge . 2 (21-06-10) Titles. The assailant, a fan of German . It was the days when the Williams . 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. She hit the sliced backhand harder and with more underspin than any woman I have ever seen. [82] Upon her return Graf defeated world No. Graf had already won 5 Wimbledon titles by then and was hunting for her 6th trophy. 1 ranking. Stefanie ("Steffi") Graf | Former German Tennis Pro and Champion. He claimed that he committed the attack to help Graf reclaim the world No. Graf did not lose a set the whole tournament. No. She partnered with doubles specialist Mark Woodforde at the Australian Open in 1994, with Henri Leconte at Wimbledon in 1991 and at the French Open in 1994, and with Charlie Pasarell at the US Open in 1984. Graf won 6-0, 6-0. She then successfully defended the three Grand Slam titles she won the year before. (not considered in winloss records). [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. The Washington, D.C. tournament was notable because Graf won the first twenty points of the final against Zina Garrison. Fernandez had two break points to take a 30 and double break lead in the third set. LEAVE A . [138][139][140] They have two children, a son born in 2001 and a daughter born in 2003. Graf ended 1989 with an 862 match record and the loss of only 12 sets. [123] In 2006, she signed an endorsement deal with Head. It was like a death by a thousand cuts for her poor opponents who would be . Wimbledon authorities then threatened to immediately shut down any subsequent press conferences where questions about the issue were asked. Navratilova, therefore, . who often frustrated opponents with variety and consistency. Angelique Kerber recalls memories of Steffi Graf at Wimbledon after becoming first German to win trophy since 1996 . Graf reached 13 consecutive singles major finals from the 1987 French Open to the 1990 French Open, winning nine of them. Graf's Grand Slam tournament breakthrough came in 1987. And Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, arguably the most accomplished sports couple there ever was, had good reason to be on campus that day. She was absolutely right the term Golden Slam was born at that exact moment. Graf had complained of an issue with her left knee but showed little trouble outplaying her opponent. 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. She lost her first round match 64, 60 to Tracy Austin, a two-time US Open champion and former world No. Steffi Graf was born as Stefanie Maria Graf to Peter and Heidi Graf in Mannheim, Germany. In the late eighties and nineties Graf dominated. ", "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! [145] She is the founder and chairperson of "Children for Tomorrow", a non-profit foundation established in 1998 for implementing and developing projects to support children who have been traumatized by war or other crises. After losing the Wimbledon final against the USAs Lindsay Davenport that same year, Graf retired from sport in August while she was still world no. She and Agassi, her husband, were on Team Elton John, which competed against Team Billie Jean King. Grand Slams) main-draw, Olympic Games and Fed Cup are included in winloss records. 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. And each time the opponent threw a problem her way, she . [a] Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. Date biografice. 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. 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. Pause, rewind, play: Steffi Graf - only player to win all four Majors and the Olympic gold in a year. 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.