Female german tennis manager supervisor8/15/2023 ![]() ![]() Graf played in her first professional tournament in October 1982 at Filderstadt, Germany. She soon began taking the top prize at junior tournaments with regularity, going on to win the European Championships 12s and 18s in 1982. She began practising on a court at the age of four and played in her first tournament at five. Her father, an aspiring tennis coach, first introduced her to the game, teaching his three-year-old daughter how to swing a wooden racket in the family's living room. When she was nine years old, her family moved to the neighboring town of Brühl. Stefanie Graf was born on 14 June 1969, in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany, to Heidi Schalk and car-and-insurance salesman Peter Graf (18 June 1938 − 30 November 2013). Along with Boris Becker, Graf was considered instrumental in popularizing tennis in Germany, where it remains one of the foremost national sports. Graf was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004. 1 men's tennis player Andre Agassi in October 2001. When asked in an interview to name the greatest players of all time, Serena Williams stated Graf and Roger Federer. In the year of Graf's retirement, Billie Jean King said, "Steffi is definitely the greatest women's tennis player of all time." 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. Martina Navratilova included Graf at the top of her list of the greatest players ever. Graf retired at the age of 30 in 1999 while ranked as the world No. She reached a total of 31 major finals in singles. She won five consecutive singles majors ( 1988 Australian Open to 1989 Australian Open), and seven out of eight, in two calendar years (1988 Australian Open to 1989 US Open, except 1989 French Open). Graf reached 13 consecutive singles major finals from the 1987 French Open to the 1990 French Open, winning nine of them. She is the only singles player (male or female) to have achieved a Grand Slam across three surfaces ( grass, clay, and hard courts). ![]() She won six French Open singles titles (second to Evert), seven Wimbledon singles titles, four Australian Open titles, and five US Open singles titles. Graf's athletic ability and aggressive game played from the baseline have been credited with developing the modern style of play that has come to dominate today's game. Notable features of Graf's game were her versatility across all playing surfaces, footwork and powerful forehand drive. She and Margaret Court are the only players, female or male, to win three majors in a calendar year five times ( 1988, 1989, 1993, 19). She won 107 singles titles, ranking her third on the WTA's all-time list after Martina Navratilova (167 titles) and Chris Evert (157 titles). ![]() 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a record 377 total weeks. Furthermore, she is the only tennis player, male or female, to have won each major tournament at least four times. In 1988, Graf became the first tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam by winning all four major singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. 1 in women's singles for a record 377 weeks, and won 22 major singles titles, the second-most in women's singles of those who began their careers after the start of the Open Era in 1968, and the third-most of all-time. Widely regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. Stefanie Maria Graf ( / ɡ r ɑː f, ɡ r æ f/ GRA(H)F, German: ( listen) born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. ![]()
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