STEFFI GRAF Biography - Famous Sports men and women

 
 

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STEFFI GRAF

Name: Steffi Graf                                                                         
Born: 14 June 1969 Mannheim, West Germany                                                 
                                                                                           
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 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.                                                                                   
                                                                                           
In 1988, Graf won the Olympic gold medal in singles and all four Grand Slam               
singles titles that year, becoming the first and only player to win the "Golden           
Slam."                                                                                     
                                                                                           
She was ranked the Women's Tennis Association's No. 1 player for a record 377             
total weeks – the longest of any player, male or female, since rankings began           
and is the only player to have won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments (Wimbledon,     
the U.S. Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open) at least four times               
each. Graf also holds the record (eight) for most years as year end number one.           
                                                                                           
A notable feature of Graf's game was her versatility across all playing surfaces.         
She won six French Open singles titles (second to Evert) and seven Wimbledon               
singles titles (third behind Navratilova and Helen Wills Moody). She is the only           
singles player to have achieved a Calendar Year Grand Slam across all three               
types of tennis courts, as the other Calendar Year Grand Slams won by other               
players occurred when the Australian and U.S. Opens were still played on grass.           
Graf reached thirteen consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, from the French               
Open in 1987 through the French Open in 1990, winning nine of them. She played             
in 36 Grand Slam singles tournaments from the 1987 French Open through the 1996           
U.S. Open, reaching the finals 29 times and winning 21 titles. Her 22nd and last           
Grand Slam title was the French Open in 1999. She reached 31 Grand Slam singles           
finals, third overall behind Evert (34 finals) and Navratilova (32 finals).               
                                                                                           
Graf retired in 1999, giving her the distinction of being the highest ranked               
player ever to retire, at No. 3 in the world. She is married to the former World           
No. 1 men's tennis player Andre Agassi.