Graf has a 20863 (76.8%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.[1]. Graf was trailing Martina Navratilova in the final 75, 20 before winning the match 57, 62, 61. In 1988, there was no bronze medal match, and both beaten semifinalists received bronze medals. Jaz Elle Agassi is best known as being a daughter of former tennis couple Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.. Parents Wedding. Steffi Graf, a Tennis champ is married to husband Andre Agassi with two children. But from 1990 onward, Graf hit fewer & fewer of those beautiful backhand drive/topspins for some reason. She then beat Snchez Vicario in the finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon. The win elevated Graf to the world No. In her semifinal match at the US Open, Graf defeated Sabatini 36, 64, 62. Chicago was notable, however, for being the first tournament Graf played with her new coach, former Swiss player Heinz Gnthardt. 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. [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. . In 2008 Graf lost an exhibition match against Kimiko Date at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo. As true as that forehand was, the mask was no less a lie. Martina [Navratilova] won more on fast courts and I won more on slow courts, but Steffi came along and won more titles on both surfaces. 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. Less than three weeks after beating her in New York, Graf inflicted yet another defeat on the Argentinean, giving her no chance with an imposing 6-3, 6-3 victory. . 3 at that time and said, "I have done everything I wanted to do in tennis. 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). This time, Navratilova beat Graf 76, 63, 62. In the Miami final, she lost her first set of the yearto Natasha Zverevaafter winning 54 consecutive sets. In their five previous head-to-head matches, Graf had defeated Martnez each time. 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. [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. At the US Open, Graf was upset in the quarterfinals by Snchez Vicario 76, 63. Only results in WTA Tour (incl. Do Not Disturb. 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. . Although Sabatini got the best of Graf in the semifinals of the season-ending Virginia Slims Championships, Graf still finished the year as the top-ranked player. 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. This including playing basketball and working with specialists in nutrition, physical and mental strength. In 2015, Graf was the recipient of the International Club's Jean Borotra Sportsmanship Award. Graf's Grand Slam tournament breakthrough came in 1987. WATCH THIS STORY: When Roger Federer toyed his opponent so bad, he asked for advice from Andre Agassi in the crowd Wimbledon championships. We would just say the basic things, but nothing else. 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. Serena Williams, who will face Kerber in the final, beat Steffi Graf for the title at Indian Wells, Calif., in 1999. Vicario was the no 2 seed while Graf was ranked no 1. As the defending champion Graf lost in straight sets to Mary Pierce in the French Open semifinal. Natasha Zvereva, the 13th seed had shocked Martina Navratilova with a straight sets fourth round . Graf did not lose a set during the tournament and lost a total of only 29 games. This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Steffi Graf. . 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. The difficulty of answering questions about the matter came to a head at a Wimbledon press conference, where Graf broke down in tears. For the German painter, see. Graf reached 13 consecutive major singles finals, from the 1987 French Open through to . Graf then won the tournament in Berlin, losing only twelve games in five matches. 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. Voted The best female role model in sports in a survey by Barclays, sponsors of the Premier League, 2010. Graf, Kerber's idol . [37] He went on to add, "I saw what Steffi did to Sabatini at the Australian Open this year, and that was it. [75] Graf then had a straight-sets win against Snchez Vicario in the Wimbledon final. 22 in 1984, and No. 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. My motivation wasn't what it was in the past. 3, She was not included in the official year end ranking. At the Roland-Garros trophy ceremony, after she . (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. [151], Graf was voted the ITF World Champion in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996. Graf then defeated Sabatini 63, 63 in the gold medal match at the Olympic Games in Seoul and achieved what the media had dubbed the "Golden Slam". Graf secured the World 124th position in her first year. 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. 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%: . [123] In 2006, she signed an endorsement deal with Head. 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. [89][114], Graf also had a powerful backhand drive but over the course of her career tended to use it less frequently, opting more often for an effective backhand slice. Her winning streak (unbeaten since the 1989 French Open loss to Arantxa Snchez) continued with victories in Tokyo, Amelia Island, and Hamburg. Chosen by World Economic Forum As Young Global Leader for 2008, Godmother of the Navigator of The Seas (Royal Caribbean Cruiselines), 2002. 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 . [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. She and Agassi, her husband, were on Team Elton John, which competed against Team Billie Jean King. 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. Focus only on getting better. Extremely sound advice! 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. . Since Graf skipped the Italian Open, she did not take part in the vote. [16] When asked in an interview to name the greatest players of all time, Serena Williams stated Graf and Roger Federer. 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. She then successfully defended the three Grand Slam titles she won the year before. One was 19 and one is pushing 34. Her rivalries with Yugoslavias Monica Seles and Spains Arantxa Snchez Vicario in the 1980s and 1990s have gone down in tennis folklore. Stefanie Maria "Steffi" Graf; 14. 1969, , ) . 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]. Graf then lost a closely contested final to Monica Seles, 26, 63, 810. Opponent Score Loss: 1986: Year-end championships: Carpet (i) Martina Navratilova: 6-7 (8-10), 3-6, 2-6 Win: 1987: Year-end championships: [74] Graf had led 41 in the second set tiebreak, only to lose six points in a row and force a decider. [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. [122] Graf's racquets were strung at 29 kilograms (64 pounds), significantly above the 50-60 pound range recommended by Wilson. She lost twice to Sabatini in the early spring at the Lipton International and the Bausch & Lomb Championships, which now brought her to seven losses in her last eight matches against Sabatini; however, the Bausch & Lomb loss would be Graf's final loss to Sabatini, winning her next, and last eight matches against Sabatini.[49]. After surviving a scare in a three-setter against Amanda Coetzer in the first round, Graf reached the final with relative ease, while Seles went through her side of the draw in even more convincing fashion. 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. 1, 64, 46, 86 after beating Sabatini in a three-set semifinal. Winner of as many as 22 Grand Slam titles, Steffi's presence was enough to send shivers down the spine of her opponents. 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. 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. And stepping on the plane there was a big group of German athletes on it. [156], Graf was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004 and the German Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.[157][158]. Graf had already won 5 Wimbledon titles by then and was hunting for her 6th trophy. I was not having fun anymore. Having also won bronze in the womens doubles with Claudia Kohde-Kilsch in Seoul, her Olympic record stands at four podium finishes, including two titles counting the one she won in Los Angeles aged 14 when tennis was a demonstration sport! This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 20:01. The shock was who she did it against. Steffi Graf and Serena Williams played just twice. The USAs Andre Agassi sealed his Career Golden Slam with the gold medal at Atlanta 1996, Spains Rafael Nadal did so at Beijing 2008 and American Serena Williams completed hers at London 2012. A commemorative plaque outside the venue in Seoul bears testament to the event: Historic Place for Golden Slam. As a result, she hit her forehand with exceptional pace and accuracy. [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. 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. 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. Twice in the third set Snchez Vicario served for the championship but was broken each time by Graf. After Wimbledon, for the first time in my career, I didn't feel like going to a tournament. Eighteen-time Grand Slam champion and former rival Chris Evert opined, "Steffi Graf is the best all-around player. She subsequently withdrew from the Pan Pacific Open and had arthroscopic surgery performed on her left knee. It is true that Graf had one of the best forehands of her era, but that doesn't mean that it is mechanically perfect. '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. 3, Jana Novotn, before losing in the semifinal to first-seeded Davenport. Though she lost the game to opponent Tracy Austin by 6-4, 6-0, this did very little to dishearten the young blood. In a close French Open final, Graf again overcame Snchez Vicario, taking the third set 108. 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. If Steffi Graf could shut out the world the way she shuts down opponents on the court then, for her, life would be perfect. [145], In 2001, Graf indicated that she preferred to be called Stefanie instead of Steffi. 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. At Wimbledon, Graf lost in the semifinals to Zina Garrison, who with this victory broke Graf's string of 13 consecutive major finals. The assailant, a fan of German . Graf won four indoor tournaments after the US Open, including a pair of straight-set wins over Sabatini in the finals of Zrich and Worcester. 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). She reached a total of 31 singles major finals. 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. 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. First professional tournament: 1982 Porsche Grand Prix at Filderstadt, Germany Plays: right handed, one handed backhand Raquet: Dunlop / Wilson Former Clubs: HTC Heidelberg, LTTC Rot-Weiss Berlin, BASF Ludwigshafen Favorite Tournament: Wimbledon Favorite Surface: Grass court Former Coaches: Pavel Slozil (1986-1991), Heinz Guenthardt . 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. Graf then lost to Navratilova 75, 63 in the Wimbledon final, her first loss of the year. [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. 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. [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. Graf's schedule was closely controlled by her father, who limited her play so that she would not burn out. She repeated the feat in 1993, 1995, and 1996. She had some amazing rivalries with Hall of Fame opponents such as Navratilova, Evert, Sabatini and Seles. 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. 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. . Graf who dated Michael Bartels is the daughter-in-law of Emmanuel Agassi. 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. [101] She was also in Berlin to host a charity gala, as well as inaugurating a tennis stadium renamed the "Steffi Graf Stadion". She would either destroy opponents, clinically and . 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. #3. Venus Williams won her first Games titles 19 years ago, and she hasnt finished yet! [34] She then won tournaments in Hamburg and Mahwah (where she lost only eight games all tournament). Graf's 1988 Grand Slam remains the only one in history completed on three surfaces (grass, clay, hard court), as all other Grand Slams in tennis history were achieved prior to the introduction of hard court at the US Open in 1978.[35].
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