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| Birth Name(s) : Stefanie Maria Graf |
Date of Birth: June 14, 1969 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
Andre Agassi |
| Profession:
Athlete |
Official Site
Go to the Steffi Graf Official Homepage |
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Full Steffi Graf Biography
| Steffi is the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles tennis titles, second of all time. She won a "Golden Slam" in 1988, when she captured all 4 majors, and the Olympic gold medal. She was ranked #1 in tennis for a record 377 weeks. Steffi announced her immediate retirement from tennis in August 1999, saying that she was not enjoying herself anymore. |
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Additional Steffi Graf Biography
Stefanie Maria Graf (born June 14, 1969, in Mannheim, West Germany) is a former World No. 1 ranked female tennis player from Germany. Graf is widely considered to be one of the greatest female tennis players in history. Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Smith Court's 24. She also won 107 singles titles, which ranks her third on the list of most singles titles won during the open era, behind Martina Navratilova (167 titles) and Chris Evert (154 titles). 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. Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, named her as the best female player of the 20th century.
Graf also had a powerful backhand drive but over the course of her career tended to use this less frequently, opting more often for her very effective backhand slice. In baseline rallies, she used the slice almost exclusively. Her accuracy with the slice, both crosscourt 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 putaways. Her topspin backhand was retained only for passing-shots, but as the number of net-rushers declined, her need for the shot lessened.
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 practicing 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 Stuttgart, Germany. She lost her first round match 6-4, 6-0 to Tracy Austin, a two-time U.S. Open champion and former World No. 1 player. Austin remarked of the then-thirteen year old Graf that "there are hundreds of girls like her in America." Twelve years later, Graf defeated Austin 6-0, 6-0 during a second round match in Indian Wells, California, which was their second and last match against each other.
On April 13, 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 a further seven times over the next three and a half years. She then won her next three tournaments at Amelia Island, Charleston, and Berlin, culminating in a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Navratilova in the final of the latter. At the French Open, Graf was the third seed but was seen by many as the tournament favorite. However, she caught a virus and lost to Hana Mandlikova in the quarterfinals 2-6, 7-6, 6-1. The illness caused her to miss Wimbledon, and an accident where she broke a toe several weeks later also curtailed her momentum. She returned to win a small tournament at Mahwah just before the U.S Open where, in one of the most anticipated matches of the year, she encountered Navratilova in a semifinal. The match was played over two days with Navratilova finally winning after saving three match points 6-1, 6-7, 7-6. 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 City. This time, Navratilova beat Graf easily 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Illness again beset Graf at the Virginia Sims Championships and she surprisingly lost to Pam Shriver in only her third loss of the year. She was named the 1988 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.
Victories at Zurich and Brighton preceded the Virginia Slims Championships, where Graf cemented her top-ranked status by beating Navratilova in the final 6-4, 7-5, 2-6, 6-2. Graf ended 1989 with an 86-2 match record and the loss of only twelve sets.
In 1993, Seles beat Graf in three sets in the final of the Australian Open. The burgeoning rivalry between them was then cut short. During a quarterfinal match between Seles and Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg, Seles was stabbed between the shoulder blades by a mentally ill Günter Parche. He claimed that he committed the attack to help Graf reclaim the number one ranking. Almost two years elapsed before Seles competed again.
The last few years of Graf's career were beset by injuries, particularly to her knees and back. These injuries caused Graf to miss much of the tour 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 tour in 1998, she finished that year ranked ninth, her lowest ranking since 1984.
Graf, known for her industrious and business-like approach to the game, could at times display a sense of humor. During a 1996 Wimbledon semifinal against Kimiko Date, a spectator yelled out, "Steffi, will you marry me?" Pausing momentarily as the stadium burst into laughter, she turned to the fan and yelled, "How much money do you have?"
9The Rogers Cup has been held annually since 1892 and has been classified on the WTA Tour as a Tier I tournament since 1990. |
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