Steffi Graf (born June 14, 1969 in Brühl, West Germany) is a German tennis player who dominated women’s tennis in the late 1980s and 1990s, winning 22 Grand Slam singles titles. She presently lives in Germany.
Graf started playing tennis at the insistence of her father, who became her instructor. At the age of 13, she became the second youngest player in history to be ranked internationally. In 1987, she won her maiden Grand Slam title by defeating Czech-born American Martina Navratilova in the French Open. In 1988, she became the third woman to win all four Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) in one calendar year. She also earned a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul, a feat known as the “Golden Slam.”
Graf was known for her intensity, speed, and powerful forehand, and by the 1990s, she had become one of the world’s best players, winning multiple singles titles at the French Open (1987-88, 1993, 1995-96, and 1999), the Australian Open (1988-90 and 1994), and the United States Open (1988-89, 1993, and 1995-96). She won seven Wimbledon titles (1988-89, 1991-93, and 1995-96), trailing only Navratilova’s nine in the open era. Graf resigned from the sport shortly after losing in the Wimbledon finals in 1999 due to ailments.
Graf’s retirement did not take her out of the public limelight. In 2001, she married Andre Agassi, and the couple was involved in several charity causes, notably Children for Tomorrow, a non-profit organization formed by Graf in 1998 to help children and families devastated by conflict and crises. Graf was admitted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004.
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