Stefanie Maria Graf is a German tennis player who was born on 14th June 1969. She is regarded as one of the greatest professional tennis players of all time. She held the world No. 1 ranking for a record 377 weeks and amassed 22 major singles titles, which ranks third all-time (behind Margaret Court’s 24 and Serena Williams’ 23) and is the second-most since the Open Era began in 1968. Graf achieved the Golden Slam in tennis for the first time in 1988 when he won the Olympic gold medal, all four major singles titles, and all four major tournaments. She is also the only tennis player, male or female, to have claimed victory in every major competition at least four times. The longest period for which any player, male or female, has held a singles number-one ranking since the WTA and the Association of Tennis Professionals, respectively, began issuing rankings, was held by Graf.
Net Worth
Several internet resources (Wikipedia, Forbes, IMDB) estimate her net worth to be approximately $145 million.
She was ranked No. 1 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) for a total of 377 weeks. She accumulated 107 singles titles, placing her third on the WTA’s all-time list behind Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (167 titles) (157 titles). She and Margaret Court are the only athletes, male or female, to win three major championships five times in a single calendar year (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995 and 1996). Graf’s adaptability on all surfaces, footwork, and strong forehand drive were notable aspects of her game. The contemporary style of play that has come to rule today’s game is linked to Graf’s athletic prowess and aggressive game played from the baseline. She won five US Open singles titles, four Australian Open titles, seven Wimbledon singles titles, six French Open singles wins, and six Wimbledon singles titles. She is the only solo athlete (male or female) to complete a Grand Slam on three different surfaces. From the 1987 French Open to the 1990 French Open, Graf competed in 13 consecutive singles major finals, winning nine of them.
In two calendar years, she won seven of eight singles majors and five in a row (1988 Australian Open to 1989 US Open, except 1989 French Open). She made it to 31 singles major finals in all. Graf, who was rated No. 3 in the world when she retired in 1999 at the age of 30, She is thought to be among the best tennis players in history. Graf was at the top of Martina Navratilova’s list of all-time best players. Steffi Graf is unquestionably the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, according to Billie Jean King, who made the statement in the year of Graf’s retirement. A group of experts gathered by the Associated Press rated Graf the best female tennis player of the 20th century in December 1999. Serena Williams named Steffi Graf and Roger Federer as the two best athletes of all time when asked to do so in an interview.
Husband and Children
In October 2001, she tied the knot with former men’s tennis ace Andre Agassi. Graf dated racing driver Michael Bartels from 1992 to 1999. After the 1999 French Open, she began dating Andre Agassi, and on October 22, 2001, they were married in front of just their mothers. A boy and a daughter were born to them in 2001 and 2003, respectively. According to Agassi and Graf, they are not encouraging their kids to play tennis. The Graf-Agassi family resides in the Las Vegas Valley neighborhood of Summerlin.
Lives Now
Graf, who had dominated the sport for more than a decade, announced his retirement in 1999 while still ranked third in the world. She received the Olympic Order that same year. Steffi Graf, who is recognized as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her husband, tennis legend Andre Agassi.
Career in Doubles
Graf routinely competed in doubles matches in Grand Slams and other competitions from the start of her career until 1990, taking home a total of 11 doubles championships. She partnered up with competitor Gabriela Sabatini in 1986. The duo had a mediocre amount of success, winning the 1988 Wimbledon Championships and making it to three French Open finals in 1986, 1987, and 1989. The two bashful women’s partnership drew a lot of attention because it was exceedingly rare for doubles players to communicate so little during changeovers and in between points. About the collaboration, Sabatini said: “We didn’t talk as much as we could have considering that playing doubles is all about communication. We would only communicate the bare minimum.”
At the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, the couple competed in their final major tournament together and lost in the quarterfinals. Graf played doubles infrequently from 1991 to the conclusion of her career, partnering with a variety of players on short-term basis, including Lori McNeil, Anke Huber, and her closest friends on the tour, Rennae Stubbs, Patricia Tarabini, and Ines Gorrochategui. At the 1999 Australian Open, she competed in her final Grand Slam doubles match with Gorrochategui, losing in the second round. Graf occasionally participated in mixed doubles, although she was never champion.
At the Australian Open in 1994, she teamed up with doubles ace Mark Woodforde. At Wimbledon in 1991 and the French Open in 1994, she teamed up with Henri Leconte. At the US Open in 1984, she teamed up with Charlie Pasarell. She was paired with her teachers Pavel Sloil at Wimbledon in 1988 and Heinz Günthardt in 1992 and 1996, both times at the prestigious tournament. Graf and John McEnroe had a well-known collaboration at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships. They advanced to the semifinals with him before Graf withdrew because she was worried about how her hamstring and bronchitis would affect her performance in the singles final.
Graf won seven singles championships at Wimbledon, six at the French Open, five at the US Open, and four each in the Australian and US Opens. She had a 278-32 (90%) overall record in 56 Grand Slam competitions (84–10 at the French Open, 74–7 at Wimbledon, 73–9 at the US Open, and 47–6 at the Australian Open). Her total prize money earned over her career was US$21895,277 (a record until Lindsay Davenport surpassed this amount in January 2008). She had a 900-115 win-loss record in singles (88.7 percent). She shared the top spot with Serena Williams for 186 straight weeks (from August 1987 to March 1991), setting a record for the women’s game, and for an unprecedented 377 total weeks.