Steffi Graf biography
Steffi Graf, byname of Stephanie Maria Graf, (born June 14, 1969, Brühl, West Germany [now in Germany]), German tennis participant who dominated ladies’s tennis within the late Nineteen Eighties and ’90s.
Graf started taking part in tennis with the encouragement of her father, who turned her coach. At age 13 she turned the second youngest participant ever to earn a world rating. In 1987 she gained her first Grand Slam occasion, defeating Czech-born American Martina Navratilova on the French Open. In 1988 she turned the third girl to win all 4 Grand Slam tournaments (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open) in a single calendar yr, and she or he gained a gold medal on the Olympic Games in Seoul—an unprecedented feat that turned often called the “Golden Slam.”
Graf was recognized for her depth, pace, and highly effective forehand, and by the Nineties she had turn out to be one of many premier gamers on this planet, successful a number of singles titles within the French Open (1987–88, 1993, 1995–96, 1999), Australian Open (1988–90, 1994), and U.S. Open (1988–89, 1993, 1995–96). Her seven victories at Wimbledon (1988–89, 1991–93, 1995–96) had been second in quantity to solely Navratilova’s 9. Soon after dropping within the finals at Wimbledon in 1999, Graf, who had been suffering from accidents, retired from the game.
Graf’s retirement didn't take away her from the general public highlight. In 2001 she married fellow tennis nice Andre Agassi, and the couple was concerned in varied charitable causes, together with Children for Tomorrow, a nonprofit group that Graf had based in 1998 to help kids and households affected by battle and different crises. Graf was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004.