The German allowed Zvereva just 13 points, three of them in that one early game. Graf's father had approached Gnthardt during the 1991 Virginia Slims Championships. Graf then went on to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before losing to Monica Seles in two sets. She soon began taking the top prize at junior tournaments with regularity, going on to win the European Championships 12s and 18s in 1982. Graf later stated it was the best tennis she had ever played in a Grand Slam final. Began playing Tennis: 1973 Turned Professional: 18.10.1982. 29 Jan Tennis Norge . "Peter Graf" redirects here. 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. Williams VS Graf MATCHES VS ALL OPPONENTS Key; W F SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A . ), At the start of her first full professional year in 1983, Graf was 13 years old and ranked world No. [127], Graf has signed many endorsement deals throughout the years including a ten-year endorsement deal with car manufacturer Opel in 1985,[128] and Rexona from 1994 to 1998. [62] Although Graf ended the year ranked No. And the year began as expected, with Graf extending her Grand Slam tournament winning streak to five events at the Australian Open, defeating Helena Sukov in the final. steffi graf opponents. 6 in 1985. [77][78] In the French Open Graf was again beaten by Amanda Coetzer in straight sets, 61, 64. The 19-year-old Graf lost the first set 7-5 before getting the measure of her rival and fighting back to take the next two sets 6-2, 6-1. This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Steffi Graf. As a result, she hit her forehand with exceptional pace and accuracy. Speculation was rife at the beginning of 1989 about the possibility of Graf winning another Grand Slam. Graf secured the World 124th position in her first 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. 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. Steffi Graf collided against Spain's Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the finals of the 1995 Wimbledon. [92][93], Graf also occasionally played mixed doubles, although she never won a title. The facts: American Amy Frazier was Graf's final opponent. Her year continued indifferently with losses in three of her first four tournaments, including a semifinal loss to Jana Novotn in Chicago. 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. It was important for me to win here, she said afterwards. 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 . [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. Graf won seven singles titles at Wimbledon, six singles titles at the French Open, five singles titles at the US Open, and four singles titles at the Australian Open. 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. 98 in 1983, No. 1 was in peerless form on the clay courts of Roland . Shortly after the US Open, she underwent surgery to remove a bone spur in her right wrist. Steffi Graf and Serena Williams are two of the greatest women's tennis players ever. 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. Graf was ranked world No. The treatment was for a fracture of the cartilage as well as a shortening and partial rupture of the patellar tendon of her left knee. [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. 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. Graf beat opponents with spectacular precision, and Williams had a power game, unlike any woman in professional tennis. 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 edges Hingis, captures sixth and 'last' French title", "Do Not Disturb: If Steffi Graf could shut out the world the way she shuts down opponents on the court then, for her, life would be perfect", "Tennis | Martinez wins controversial clash", "Results Archive - Steffi Graf - Australian Open Tennis Championships", "Tennis: Wimbledon 99 - Magic mixture of McEnroe and Graf", "TENNIS; Without Dad Around To Disturb Her, Lucic Upsets Fourth-Seeded Seles at Wimbledon", "Graf overcomes layoff to beat Coetzer in farewell exhibition", "* NZine * Tennis - The Biggest Participant Sport In New Zealand - Tennis, Steffi Graf, Indoor Tennis Centre, Davis Cup, Anthony Wilding, Wilding Park, Maurice Agar, Scenic Circles Indoor Tennis Centre, New Zealand Tennis", "Steffi Graf delights crowd at Westside Tennis Club - Houston Chronicle", "Steffi Graf: The Queen Returns to Centre Court", "Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Elton John headline an evening of tennis for charity in Washington", "ASAP Sports Transcripts - Tennis - 1995 - WTA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS - November 18 - Steffi Graf", "Today in Performance Sneaker History: Steffi Graf Becomes First Female with 500 Wins in Signature adidas Model", "Take a look at this Dunlop Steffi Graf ad from 1989! Graf again lost to Monica Seles in the final of the French Open 67, 46. Going back in time, one can recall the right-handed player who fearlessly outplayed her opponents. . Even discounting that result, no other player had played and won 27 Grand Slam matches in a single year before. 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). [85][86] She was ranked No. 1, 64, 46, 86 after beating Sabatini in a three-set semifinal. She had just lost a three-set semifinal to No. Peter Graf also kept a tight rein on Graf's personal life. 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. Seles and Graf met in the final, with Graf winning in three sets, saving a set point in the first set. One was 19 and one is pushing 34. "[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. The experience of 88 in Seoul probably stands out, just coming from the US Open where I won the Grand Slam. Her birth name is Stefanie Maria Graf and she is currently 51 years old. Graf lost to Conchita Martnez in her comeback tournament a month later in Philadelphia. Graf's technique on the forehand was unique and instantly recognizable: generating considerable racquet head speed with her swing, she reached the point of contact late and typically out of the air. Seles won the match on her fifth match point; Graf came within two points of winning the match a few games earlier. Following her tournament victory in German Open in Berlin, Graf suffered one of the worst defeats of her career in a French Open semifinal where she won only two games against Snchez Vicario and lost her first 60 set since 1984. Her rivalries with Yugoslavias Monica Seles and Spains Arantxa Snchez Vicario in the 1980s and 1990s have gone down in tennis folklore. She was successful, however, in the mixed doubles match. 1 ranking. In an interview with Stern magazine in July 1990, Graf stated, "I could not fight as usual."[46]. She won no titles during the next three years, but her ranking climbed steadily to world No. Steffi Graf: Steffi Graf has 22 grand slams to her name, most coming during the late 80s and 90s. More to Graf's net worth, family, height, net worth, nationality, residence, mansion, stats, retirement, now, news, updates and facts. She lost the world No. My father taught me that if you really do want to reach your goals, you can't spend any time worrying about whether you're going to win or lose. Graf then lost to Navratilova 75, 63 in the Wimbledon final, her first loss of the year. Serena Williams, who will face Kerber in the final, beat Steffi Graf for the title at Indian Wells, Calif., in 1999. 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. [45] In Berlin, she extended her unbeaten streak to 66 matches (second in WTA history to Navratilova's 74) before losing the final to Monica Seles, 46, 36. She was unstoppable. [109], Note: 1 ranking while she was sidelined. "[89] The pair played their last major tournament together at the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, losing in the quarterfinals. [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. 667 (25-02-23) Best Rank. She subsequently withdrew from the Pan Pacific Open and had arthroscopic surgery performed on her left knee. Her 0.977 winning percentage is the second-highest in the open era behind Navratilova.[44]. Steffi Graf with the Wimbledon trophy in 1989 after defeating Martina Navratilova 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-1 in the final. . In the meantime, she lost surprisingly to Nicole Bradtke of Australia in a Fed Cup match on clay before winning the Acura Classic in San Diego and the Canadian Open in Toronto in preparation for the US Open. [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. Kerber's opponent will be the defending champion, . . [79] Only one week later, she underwent reconstructive knee surgery in Vienna and subsequently missed the 1997 Wimbledon and US Open championships. I was not having fun anymore. Graf then won her next three tournaments at Amelia Island, Charleston, and Berlin, culminating in a 62, 63 defeat of Navratilova in the final of the latter. Associations of International Sport Federations, Organising Committees for the Olympic Games. 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. However, there was also a 15-year-old who shot into the scene in 1995 that would take the tennis world by storm. . At the 1999 French Open, Graf and Agassi . 3, She was not included in the official year end ranking. played a game called "Can you last an hour on court with Graf" because throughout her career she used to beat her opponents 6-0 6-1. 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. Though she lost the game to opponent Tracy Austin by 6-4, 6-0, this did very little to dishearten the young blood. [155], In 2004, the Berliner Tennis-Arena was renamed Steffi-Graf-Stadion in honor of Graf. 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. The shock was who she did it against. 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. All right, yes, there is the winning and, with it, the money, but they come too easily and bring only temporary relief. Do Not Disturb. In August as a 15-year-old (and youngest entrant) representing West Germany, she won the tennis demonstration event at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Graf and Kohde-Kilsch lost in the semifinals to Jana Novotn and Helena Sukov 75, 63. [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. 1 men's tennis player Andre Agassi in October 2001. Whether this scandal affected Graf's form is open to debate. 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. 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. However, in the Federation Cup final in Vancouver, Canada, three weeks later, she defeated Evert easily 62, 61. [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. Graf is the first German to win the Spain's 'Prince of Asturias' award. Graf's Grand Slam tournament breakthrough came in 1987. It just felt something special that I was going to, recalls Graf. Pause, rewind, play: Steffi Graf - only player to win all four Majors and the Olympic gold in a year. It was the longest French Open women's singles final in history, both in terms of time (3 hours and 3 minutes) and number of games played (40). Chosen by World Economic Forum As Young Global Leader for 2008, Godmother of the Navigator of The Seas (Royal Caribbean Cruiselines), 2002.