Stefanie Maria "Steffi" Graf (born June 14, 1969
in Mannheim, Germany) is a former World No. 1
woman tennis player from Germany, and widely
considered one of the greatest tennis players in
history. She won 22 Grand Slam (tennis)|Grand Slam
singles titles. In 1988, she became the first
player to achieve the "Golden Slam" –
capturing all four Grand Slam titles and the
Olympic Games|Olympic Gold Medal in the same year.
She was ranked the World No. 1 player for a record
377 weeks and is the only player to have won all
four of Grand Slam at least four times apiece.
==Biography==
===Early career===
Steffi was introduced to tennis by her father
Peter Graf, a car and insurance salesman and
aspiring tennis coach, who taught his
three-year-old daughter how to swing a wooden
racket in the family's living room. She began
practising on a court at the age of four and
played in her first tournament at five. She soon
began winning junior tournaments with regularity,
and in 1982 she won the European Championships 12s
and 18s.
Graf played in her first professional tournament
in October 1982 at Filderstadt, Germany; she lost
6-4, 6-0 to Tracy Austin. After the match, Austin
dismissed Graf's abilities saying there were
"hundreds" of kids like her in the United States.
At the start of her first full professional season
in 1983, the 13-year-old Graf was ranked World No.
124. She won no titles in the next three years,
but her game improved consistently and her ranking
steadily climbed: No. 98 in 1983, No. 22 in 1984,
and No. 6 in 1985. In 1984, she represented West
Germany in the tennis demonstration event at the
Olympic Games in Los Angeles and won the Gold
Medal. Her schedule was closely controlled by her
father, who limited her play so that she would not
burn out as many young tennis stars had. In 1985,
for instance, she played only 10 events leading up
to the U.S. Open (tennis)|US Open; whereas another
up-and-coming star, Gabriela Sabatini of
Argentina, who was a year younger than Graf,
played 21. Peter Graf also kept a tight reign on
Steffi's personal life. Social invitations on the
tour were often declined as Steffi's focus was
kept very much on on-court play. Working with her
father and coach Pavel Slozil, Graf typically
practiced for up to four hours a day, often
heading straight from airports to practice courts.
This narrow focus meant that Graf made few friends
on the tour in her early years, but led to a
steady improvement in her play.
Graf finally won her first tour title in April
1986 at Hilton Head, South Carolina, defeating
Chris Evert in the final. She followed this up
with seven further tournament victories in 1986,
and finished the year ranked World No. 3.
The main weapon in Graf's game was her powerful
forehand, which earned her the nickname "Fraulein
Forehand"'. Over time, Graf also developed the
best slice backhand in the game. She built her
powerful and accurate serve up to 105 mph. She was
also extremely fast and athletic, chasing down
balls that seemed unplayable. Though she chose
tennis as her career, she was also a top 400-metre
runner in her youth and could potentially have
been a world-class athlete in that event.
===Breakthrough year===
Graf's Grand Slam breakthrough came in 1987. She
started the year strongly, with six tournament
victories heading into the French Open. In the
final, she defeated World No. 1 Martina
Navratilova in an epic battle: 6-4, 4-6, 8-6. Graf
lost to Navratilova in the finals at Wimbledon
Championships|Wimbledon and the US Open later that
year. But she won three more tournaments after the
French Open and did enough to claim the World No.
1 ranking from Navratilova in August 1987. She
also helped West Germany win the Fed Cup that
year.
==="Golden Slam"===
1988 is widely considered to be the pinnacle of
Graf's career. She started out the year by winning
the Australian Open, beating Evert in straight
sets in the final. Then at the French Open, she
successfully defended her title by hammering
Natalia Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 in the final. Next came
Wimbledon, where Navratilova had won six straight
titles. After a tight start to the final, Graf
took control in the second set and beat
Navratilova 5-7, 6-2, 6-1. She then beat Sabatini
in three sets in the US Open final to duplicate
the feat of winning all four Grand Slam singles
titles in one year, previously achieved by only
two women – Maureen Connolly (in 1953) and
Margaret Court (in 1970). But with tennis becoming
a full medal sport at the 1988 Olympic Games in
Seoul, there was one more feat which Graf could
add. And she duly defeated Sabatini 6-3, 6-3 in
the Olympic final to win the Gold Medal and
achieve what the media had dubbed the "Golden
Slam". Graf also won her only Grand Slam doubles
title that year – at Wimbledon partnering
Sabatini – and picked up a women's doubles
Olympic Bronze Medal. She was named the 1988 BBC
Sports Personality of the Year Overseas
Personality|BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the
Year.
===New challengers===
Graf extended her Grand Slam winning streak to
five events at the Australian Open in 1989, where
she comfortably beat Helena Sukova in the final.
The winning streak was ended at the 1989 French
Open, where a 16 year-old Spanish contender
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario beat her in three sets to
become the French Open's youngest-ever winner.
However the winning touch was quickly rediscovered
as Graf beat Navratilova in three-set finals at
both Wimbeldon and the US Open.
Few doubted that Graf would continue to dominate
the women's game for years to come when she beat
Mary Joe Fernández at the start of 1990. But a
new threat to her dominance broke-through at the
1990 French Open where 16 year-old Monica Seles
beat Graf in straight sets to further lower to
youngest-ever winner record. At Wimbledon, Graf
was unexpectedly beaten in the semi-finals by Zina
Garrison. She then reached the US Open final, but
lost in straight sets to Sabatini. Personal
problems contributed to her difficulties. In the
middle of the year, her father Peter was the
subject of a paternity suit brought by a former
Playboy model. The difficulty of answering
questions about the matter came to a head at a
press conference early in the tournament at
Wimbledon, where Steffi broke down in tears.
Wimbledon authorities then threatened to
immediately shut-down any subsequent press
conferences where questions about the issue were
asked. (Tests eventually proved Peter was not the
baby's father.) Though Graf remained the World No.
1 player at the end of 1990, her aura of
invincibility had been broken.
A mixture of injury problems, personal
difficulties and loss of form made 1991 a tough
year for Graf. Seles established herself as the
new dominant player on the women's tour, winning
the Australian Open, French Open and US Open, and
ending Graf's reign as World No. 1 in March. Seles
did not play at Wimbledon, where Graf won her only
Grand Slam final of the year following a tight
three-set battle with Sabatini.
1992 was another year when Graf had to play
second-fiddle to Seles on the tour. Seles again
won the Australian, French and US Opens. Seles and
Graf met in the French Open final which Seles won
in a very close battle, taking the third set 10-8.
They then met again in the Wimbeldon final, where
Graf comprehensively proved that she was still the
tour's strongest grass court player, winning 6-2,
6-1. At the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Graf lost
to Jennifer Capriati in the final and claimed the
Silver Medal. However she did win her second Fed
Cup with Germany.
All indications were that Seles continued to have
the upper-hand at the start of the 1993, when she
beat Graf in three sets in the final of the
Australian Open. However a stunning turn of events
changed everything on April 30 1993. During a
quarter-final match between Seles and Magdalena
Maleeva at Hamburg, Seles was stabbed between the
shoulder-blades by a member of the crowd during a
change-over. As Seles was rushed to hospital, her
attacker was taken into custody. It turned out
that the assailant was Günter Parche, a
38-year-old mentally-unstable fan of Graf from
eastern Germany, who claimed that he committed the
attack in order to help Graf reclaim the World No.
1 ranking, which Seles had held for the past two
years. Graf visited Seles in hospital the
following day, but said little in public about the
attack. She reached the final in Hamburg that
week, where she lost to Sánchez Vicario.
===Second period of dominance===
The psychological effects of the attack kept Seles
away from the tour for the next 28 months. With
Seles off the scene, Graf won the remaining three
Grand Slam titles in 1993 and regained the World
No. 1 ranking. It is impossible to determine if
Gunther Parche had not attacked Seles if Graf
would have experienced her second period of
resurgence. Parche got his way.
The beginning of 1994 saw Graf beat Sánchez
Vicario in the final of the Australian Open and,
for the second time in her career, become the
holder of all four Grand Slam titles
simultaneously. However she lost in the
semi-finals at the French Open, and then was
shockingly eliminated in the first round at
Wimbledon by Lori McNeil. She reached the final of
the US Open, where she lost to Sánchez Vicario in
three sets.
Injury kept Graf out of the Australian Open in
1995. She came back strongly to beat Sánchez
Vicario in the finals of both the French Open and
Wimbledon. The US Open was Seles' first Grand Slam
after returning from her long period away from the
tour. Seles and Graf met in the final, and Graf
won a dramatic battle 7-6, 0-6, 6-3.
In personal terms, 1995 was a very difficult year
for Steffi as she was accused by the German
authorities of tax evasion in the early years of
her career. In her defence, all she could say was
that her father Peter had been her financial
manager, and all financial matters relating to her
earnings at the time had been under his control.
As a result, Peter Graf was sentenced to 45 months
in jail. He was eventually released after serving
25 months. Prosecutors dropped their case against
Steffi in 1997, when she agreed to pay a fine of
1.3 million Deutsche Marks to the government and
an unspecified charity.
In 1996 Steffi again missed the Australian Open
due to injury, and then successfully defended the
three Grand Slam titles she won the year before.
In a classic French Open final, Graf saved
overcame Sánchez Vicario, taking the third-set
10-8. She then had straight-sets wins against
Sánchez Vicario in the Wimbledon final and Seles
in the US Open final.
While known for her business-like approach to the
game, at times Graf displayed a sense of humor.
During a tight 1996 semi-final match at Wimbledon
against Kimiko Date, Graf was getting ready to
serve when a spectator yelled out "Steffi, will
you marry me?". The whole stadium burst into
laughter. Steffi caught the ball she was bouncing,
turned to the fan, and yelled "How much money do
you have?". Graf lost the set, but won the match
6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
===Finals years on the tour===
The last few years of Graf's career were beset by
injuries – particularly to her knees and
back. But this did not prevent her enjoying some
final Grand Slam success as her career came to a
close.
Injury problems caused Graf to miss much of the
season in 1997. She lost the World No. 1 ranking
to Martina Hingis and failed to win a Grand Slam
title for the first time in ten years.
After missing almost half the season in 1998, she
finished that year ranked World No. 9 (her lowest
ranking since 1984).
But Graf still had a few more dramatic moments up
her sleeve in 1999. At the French Open, she
reached her first Grand Slam final for three years
and fought back from a set and a break down in the
second set to defeat the tennis world's new young
star Martina Hingis in three sets, in what she
called her most satisfying Grand Slam victory. She
then reached her ninth Wimbledon final, where she
lost to Lindsay Davenport.
With a series of injuries refusing to go away,
Graf announced her retirement from the tour in
August 1999. She was ranked the World No. 3 at the
time of her retirement.
During her career, Graf won 107 singles titles and
11 doubles titles. Her 22 Grand Slam singles
titles are second only to Margaret Court, who won
24. Her career prize-money earnings totalled
US$21,895,277. Her singles win-loss record was
900-115. She was ranked the World No. 1 for a
massive 377 weeks (non-consecutive), including a
record 186 consecutive weeks (from August
1987-March 1991) – more than any other man
or woman player.
===After retirement from the tour===
Graf married Andre Agassi on October 22 2001 at
his home in Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas, with only
their mothers as witnesses. Their son Jaden Gil
was born on October 26, six weeks prematurely.
Their daughter Jaz Elle was born on October 3
2003.
Graf is the Founder and an active 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. She is also a
WWF Ambassador. She appeared in "Otto, der
Außerfriesische", loves animals and is keen on
fashion and has created her own designs.
Graf was inducted into the International Tennis
Hall of Fame in 2004.
