A Tribute To A Living Legend - Page 2© Michael Cecilio
Page 2
Aug 17, 1999
Unlike Martina Hingis and Monica Seles, Steffi Graf did not achieve greatness until after her teen years. She won her first Grand Slam title at the age of 19, three years older than that of Seles and Hingis. But ever since, she has been a force to be reckoned with. The following year after her first major title, she went on to blitz the tour by winning ALL four grand slam trophies in 1988. And don't forget her gold medal win at the Seoul Olympic Games which gave her the recognition of the golden grand slam! Completing the Grand Slam was an incredible achievement - perhaps the most prestigious achievement there is in the field of tennis. Steffi has been on the verge of completing the Grand Slam many times over, winning three grand slams and reaching the final of the other in 1989 and in 1993, and again, winning three majors in 1995 and 1996.
Graf had deposed the likes of Navratilova and Evert by the late 1980's. But there was an imminent challenger in the ranks in Monica Seles, the fierce baseliner, who hit punishing groundstrokes with two hands off both wings. There was no one quite like Seles on the tour, who had every weapon in the book, and had the mental endurance to match. So it was fitting that Seles would usurp Graf as the premier player in the world, winning a total of six majors in 1991 and 1992 alone. Seles and Graf would carry on to compete in a rivalry often touted as the next "Navratilova and Evert". Unfortunately, it never got to that stage. At the height of this intriguing rivalry and of Seles's dominance of the WTA tour, a deranged Steffi Graf fan stabbed Monica Seles at a tournament in Hamburg. It would take Monica Seles out of the WTA tour for over two years, and she would return to the tour never quite the same. This deranged fan got exactly what he wanted - Graf to return to the #1 ranking in tennis. It was not the way Graf had intended to return to the top. Although she would dominate the tour once again after Monica's reign, questions would always arise whether Steffi would have been so dominating in the mid-1990's had Seles not been taken out the way she was. Certainly, it was a low point in women's tennis, and a low point in the careers of Seles and Graf. Needless to say, the incident created a lot of animosity between the arch-rivals.
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