Graf, Steffi

In West Germany (now the West of Germany), Steffanie Maria Graf was born into a tennis playing family. Her dad (Peter Graf) coached her and her professional tennis-playing mother (Heidi Graf) helped also. Steffi could hardly escape a life of tennis.

Born in 1969, she was only 13 when she became the 2^nd youngest tennis professional. In 1985, Steffi was ranked 6^th in the world, only without a championship win. This changed only the next year when she won 8 of the 14 singles championships, beating the previous winners Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. In 1987 (a very good year – I was born), Steffi won 45 matches in a row, without a break. That year, she also won 10 out of 13 championships, including the French, Italian and German Opens. She then reached the number one ranking in the world in women’s tennis, the first time that neither Navratilova nor Evert had been at number one since 1980. A big jump of years now (well… I can’t fit everything in!). By 1995, Steffi had won all 4 Grand Slam tournaments at least 4 times each – the only person to accomplish such a feat! (Sickening, isn’t it).

She announced her retirement on Friday 13^th August 1999.

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