A look at some of Steffi Graf’s unbreakable records…👇👇
Overcoming personal turmoil and related tragedy, Steffi Graf went on to become one of the best tennis players of all time and, by extension, maybe the most complete female athlete in history. In the early 1980s, before she was well-known, the German Tennis Federation tested over 100 of its best eight-to twelve-year-old players for physical prowess.
She not only won every single one, but the then-groundbreaking research also hinted that she would be able to win the 1500 meters in the Olympics. She supported this theory by working with the nation’s best runners in preparation for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Graf accomplished the still-unprecedented “Golden Slam” in that year, taking home the gold medal in addition to all four Majors, demonstrating his remarkable consistency and adaptability on a variety of surfaces. By the time she concluded her career in 1999, she had won 22 titles overall and had topped the world rankings for an incredible 377 weeks. She is the first player of either sex to have won each of the four Slams four times. This included seven Wimbledon titles, where her sliced backhand was so useful in providing support for her fierce forehand drive, intense focus, and excellent court coverage.
One was the way her turbulent father Peter, who passed away in November of last year, behaved. He was one of the archetypal authoritarian tennis fathers, having started teaching her the sport at the age of three. His unpredictable behavior toward other players frequently caused his daughter to struggle in the game. Off-court distractions mostly prevented her from winning title after title, but his careless approach toward money ultimately led to his imprisonment for tax cheating in 1997.
