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Steffi Graf Admiration Thread Vol 2

864K views 6K replies 140 participants last post by  Michael! 
#1 ·
This is a great idea to start this topic...
I shall dedicate this thread to the player who made me notice tennis and follow it eversince I saw her play.....

Steffi Graf!
:bounce: :bounce:
 
#2,397 ·
Ah ok I didn't know there was so much references, all from NBC shows ;), I knew about the 2 from "friends" for sure (I am a huge fan) (Joey and Geller's Father) and the one from "Mad about you".
I remember I was curious back then, as before the internet here in France we only had "friends" available with french language, to know if they changed the name of the sportswoman to make it more european (they sometimes did it with some references), but no in the original version it was still Steffi :D
 
#2,402 ·
Does 1987 + 25 really equal 2012?

GARRISON'S CHANCES SLIM, NONE VS. GRAF NO. 1 SEED ROLLS AT GARDEN
The Record (New Jersey) - Thursday, November 19, 1987
Author: By Bill Pennington

Steffi Graf loves to shop when she's in New York. The world's top-ranked woman tennis player spends her free time here chasing down baubles at Bloomies.

"The best stores on the tour," Graf said.

Shopping may be the best way for her to spend the days leading to Sunday's final of the Virginia Slims Championships at Madison Square Garden. Graf could get a better fight at the perfume counter at Saks Fifth Avenue than she did last night from Zina Garrison, her first-round opponent.

Don't be afraid to call this one an annihilation; that's what it was. The first set took 18 minutes, the match lasted all of 47 minutes.

Graf won the first eight games, dawdled a bit, and then advanced to tonight's quarterfinal round against Helena Sukova with a 6-0, 6-3 wipeout.

It's a wonder Garrison, a 24-year-old from Houston, won any games last night. Only an apparent lapse in concentration by Graf kept the score from being 6-0, 6-0.

Graf, 18, no doubt was planning today's midtown excursion.

"I am the number one player," she said when asked to assess the 1987 season minutes after trampling Garrison. "This is an important tournament for me. An important point and a buildup to next year. "

How is Graf going to play better next year?

"I can do more," she said. "I lost twice this year. "

Graf s 1987 match record is 72-2.

Two of the tour's better players though their games seemed far off Graf's pace also advanced last night. In the opening match, Sukova rallied to defeat Lori McNeil, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2. Fourth-seeded Pam Shriver held on in the third set to defeat Katerina Maleeva, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing collapse.

Graf said she learned from watching the matches Monday, when Chris Evert lost to Sylvia Hanika, and Tuesday, when Martina Navratilova struggled through the second set of her victory over Caterina Lindqvist.

"I think I realized anything could happen," Graf said. "I was anxious to play, anxious to get it over with. I'm glad it was easy today. "

Was it ever. Garrison won nine points in the first set and just four points after the first game of that set.

"She's just so quick," Garrison said. "Several times I hit shots that would be winners against anyone else. Steffi turned them into winners for her. "

The second set was chaotic. Graf was up 2-0, and then the players split the next four games.

"I was thinking ahead too much," Graf said. "I was trying to close it out all at once. I wanted to get out of here without having to keep playing well. "

Shriver's match was not supposed to be so spirited. Some are saying Shriver, the only American-born player left in the field, is new, improved, and mentally tougher.

Shriver had most of the 12,027 fans at the Garden believing in her new image after the first set last night. But then she stumbled in the second set.

And in the third set, after the players split the first six games, Maleeva had two break points. Shriver served two aces to escape. Then she broke Maleeva and coasted to victory.

So maybe Shriver is new and improved after all.

"I think I was just tired from playing doubles last night until 1 in the morning," Shriver said. "I was definitely shaky tonight.

"It brought back memories from a couple years ago. I hope it's just a freak thing, because I don't want to go back to where I was before losing matches I shouldn't lose."

Tonight's other quarterfinal match pairs Italy's Rafaella Reggi and West Germany's Sylvia Hanika.
 
#2,403 ·
COMPUTER QUEEN GRAF LIVES UP TO HER RANKING
The Record (New Jersey) - Monday, November 23, 1987
Author: By Bill Pennington

You didn't have to be fluent in German to understand that Steffi Graf was in a bad mood yesterday.

Yelling at herself in her native tongue, calling herself a "dummy" and once referring to her tennis racquet as "a traitor," Graf was losing points, losing confidence, and losing her match to Gabriela Sabatini.

Graf wants to be accepted as the world's greatest woman tennis player. The Virginia Slims computer said she would hold that ranking regardless of the outcome of the final of the Virginia Slims Championships at Madison Square Garden yesterday.

But if she had lost, all the computer printouts in the world could not have changed the perception that Graf still cannot win the big titles. Of the 1987 major tournaments, she won the French Open but lost in the finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

A paper champ? A computer chip champ?

After losing the first set yesterday, Graf could hear the whispers. So she yelled. She railed at herself and rallied her game, charging past Sabatini, the 17-year-old from Argentina, to win the Slims Championships, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, 6-4.

Although the Slims is not considered a major, it is the last women's tournament of the year. It was to be the final showdown between Graf and Martina Navratilova.

Sabatini, playing the best tennis of her career, eliminated Navratilova Friday. After one set yesterday, serving magnificently and running the court effortlessly, Sabatini finally seemed ready to beat Graf in their 11th meeting. Sabatini was gliding from sideline to sideline and most of the Garden crowd was behind her.

"I was wondering what was going on," Graf said.

So was everyone else.

On her side of the net, Sabatini was concentrating on maintaining the sneak attack.

"After the difficult matches I had Friday and Saturday [a three-set victory over Manuela Maleeva], I knew I had to win it today in three sets," Sabatini said of the best-of-five format. "I could only win it that way. I was too tired to play very well for four or five sets. "

Graf saw the desperation in her opponent's eyes. "I knew she would have to get tired eventually," Graf said. "I was trying to make her run. "

The players were on serve until the eighth game of the second set. Sabatini double-faulted at break point. She broke back in what might be best described as a last gasp, then lost serve and the set in the 10th game.

"I knew it was over then," Sabatini said later.

And it was.

A week ago, Steffi came to New York to shop and assert her dominance, though not necessarily in that order.

She did both. And afterward, she even displayed a sense of humor.

Asked how she would describe her year, when her match record was 75-2, Graf answered in a long, obviously preconceived soliloquy that mentioned many of her 1987 tour victories.

"Yesterday [Saturday] I took a long time to fall asleep," Graf said. "I was thinking of how to describe my year. I had a weird thing going on. I'm going to describe my year like I was cooking and making a menu card.

"For an appetizer, I had Boca Raton and Key Biscayne. For the main dish, I had a hearty and tender French Open topped off with Berlin and Rome. On the side, I had Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals.

"But the bad thing about my cooking was that I didn't take enough salt and pepper on both of them.

"For dessert and I like dessert very much I had Hamburg and Zurich, and best of all, New York.

"That's how I describe 1987. It was very tasteful. "

And entertaining.

Even in defeat, Sabatini described her week in New York City as "the best week I've ever had."

Sabatini, not Navratilova, may be the toughest competition for Graf in 1988. In the last two months of the year, Sabatini has improved dramatically.

Yesterday, fatigue was a factor, but Sabatini may have also showed her inexperience. She was fine as she slugged it out with Graf, armed with forceful ground strokes of her own. But she double-faulted 17 times.

"I think sometimes she was trying too hard," Graf said of her doubles partner.

In the end, it was Sabatini who was muttering to herself on the court. Graf was still speaking in German, but this time yelling to a crowd of fans waving a German flag in the stands. She thanked them for coming out and wished them a safe trip home.

She was smiling. She was laughing. She was on top of the world. The women's tennis world, that is.
 
#2,404 ·
Doubles partners will vie for title
Houston Chronicle - Sunday, November 22, 1987
Author: CHARLES CARDER

NEW YORK CITY - Doubles partners Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini - a couple of teen-aged tennis terrors - will meet today in the final of the Virginia Slims Championship at Madison Square Garden.

With the departure of the dominate tennis figures of the past decade - Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Pam Shriver - due to early round upsets, the youngsters are left to compete for the championship. They removed the last "veterans" in the semifinals on Saturday.

Graf, 18, needed only 67 minutes to eliminate the oldest of the semifinalists, 28-year-old Sylvia Hanika 6-1, 6-4. Sabatini, 17, required two hours and two minutes and three sets to dispose of 20-year-old Manuela Maleeva 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

The length of the semifinals may become a factor in the final, which is scheduled for best of five sets. Neither contestant has ever played more than three sets.

Graf was a finalist here a year ago but lost to Navratilova in three sets. Sabatini has never been scheduled for more than three.

"Maybe she (Graf) is in good shape because she won easily," Sabatini admitted after her long match. "I am a little tired now but I have a lot of time and I think I can be ready.

"I am very happy because I never thought I would be in the finals."

Graf, of West Germany, is the No. 1 seeded player and Sabatini, from Argentina, was seeded fifth. Graf gained the final by defeating Zina Garrison, Helena Sukova and Hanika, while Sabatini advanced with wins over Bettina Bunge, Navratilova and Maleeva.

Not only did Graf have the easier time in the semifinals, but she also has history on her side. She has never lost one of the 10 previous meetings with Sabatini. However, seven of the previous meetings have gone three sets.

Navratilova and Shriver repeated as doubles champions, defeating Claudia Kohde-Kilsch and Helena Sukova 6-1, 6-1. It was the third time in the last four years that Navratilova-Shriver have won the championship.

The Saturday matches attracted a single-session record of 17,312 despite subfreezing temperature and a chill factor of 12 degrees below zero.

Graf rolled in the first set, but the second set was a mixture of service breaks. Hanika was broken in the third, fifth and seventh games but Graf could not close it out because she lost her serve in the sixth and eighth games.

"It is very easy to lose concentration after the first set was so easy," Graf said. She admitted that she had been prepared to face Evert in the semifinals, but Hanika ruined that plan with her upset on Tuesday.

Graf said that she had been looking forward to meeting Navratilova in the final before she was upset by Sabatini in the semifinals.

"I was asleep Friday night, so I didn't find out about it until this morning," Graf said. "Maybe Martina was trying too hard, she was very eager to win the tournament. And I was looking forward to playing her."

Hanika said she had been very nervous during the first set but added that "I'm very satisfied with the way I've played in this tournament."

Hanika said she might extend her coaching agreement with former Rice University player Mike Estep. Estep, former coach of Navratilova, has worked for two weeks with Hanika.

"We'll talk about it in the next couple of days," Hanika said. "We'll see about the future."

Graf and Sabatini are very quiet individuals and sometimes are amazed how their innocence draws reactions from other people. Graf revealed that in the past they haven't talked when they were playing doubles.

"We're getting along better," she said. "Now we speak on the court."

After a round of laughter, she inquired, "Why is everyone laughing?"

Sabatini was so happy with her success that she smiled throughout her postmatch interview.

"Yes, I'm confident," she said. "I think this is the best moment for me in tennis. This match and last night (against Navratilova) have given me a lot of confidence. I never thought that I was going to lose.

"There is nothing that I will do differently, expect trying to concentrate from the beginning. I think that I am playing better than the last time we played (at Los Angeles in August).

"I think I've learned mentally and I know better how to play the points."

Maleeva was disturbed that she had made so many mistakes against Sabatini.

"I'm not pleased with the way I've played in this tournament, not after this match," Maleeva said. "Yes, I was pleased with the way I had played in the other matches.

"I shouldn't let these things bother me. But that is one of the mistakes I made."

Maleeva lost her serve in the first, seventh and ninth games of the first set while breaking Sabatini in the eighth game. But Sabatini lost her serve in the second set, in the third and fifth game, while breaking Maleeva in the eighth.

Neither player was able hold serve in the fourth through eighth games of the deciding set but, leading 5-3, Sabatini held to close out the match.

Hanika, who had just lost to Graf, was asked what a player has to do to halt Graf's 74-2 match winning record for this year.

"Well, come to the net against her, to play well, serve and volley and just go for it," Hanika said.

Sabatini, only 17 years old, will be going for it today against the No. 1 player in the world.
 
#2,405 ·
Asked how she would describe her year, when her match record was 75-2, Graf answered in a long, obviously preconceived soliloquy that mentioned many of her 1987 tour victories.

"Yesterday [Saturday] I took a long time to fall asleep," Graf said. "I was thinking of how to describe my year. I had a weird thing going on. I'm going to describe my year like I was cooking and making a menu card.

"For an appetizer, I had Boca Raton and Key Biscayne. For the main dish, I had a hearty and tender French Open topped off with Berlin and Rome. On the side, I had Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals.

"But the bad thing about my cooking was that I didn't take enough salt and pepper on both of them.

"For dessert and I like dessert very much I had Hamburg and Zurich, and best of all, New York.

"That's how I describe 1987. It was very tasteful. "

And entertaining.


Comparing the year to a menu card, yum.......
Still bummed of how she was described by many as a one dimensional tennis machine and nothing more.
In a way, glad that the press got her wrong ;);)
 
#2,407 ·
Comparing the year to a menu card, yum.......
Still bummed of how she was described by many as a one dimensional tennis machine and nothing more.
In a way, glad that the press got her wrong ;);)
Oh, she could be very droll and sarcastic. Just a brief survey of some of my favorite humorous Steffi quotes/stories:

From the 1985 US Open:

At Wimbledon, when they asked Boris Becker why he wore a watch during his matches, he said: "I have a contract with the watch company."

Steffi Graf, also from West Germany, likewise wears a watch, and John Feinstein of the Washington Post asked her at the U.S. Open if she, too, had a contract.

"No," she said.

They why does she wear it?

"I wear it, because if I didn't, I would lose it," she said.

***********************************

After thumping Claudia Porwick in 34 minutes in Berlin in 1987, she joked: "It was icy cold when we started the match, so I thought I'd better get it over with quickly."

***********************************

After playing Sabatini in front of a capacity crowd of about 8,000 at the Italian Open in 1987, she was asked if the crowd's very vocal support of Gaby bothered her: "It wasn't that bad," she said. "There were eight or nine guys in one corner who kept yelling, 'Steffi.' "

***********************************

After she won the 1987 French Open, Bud Collins interviewed her court-side and asked, "What won it for you?"

And the 17-year-old smart-ass laughingly replied: "The double faults." (If the NBC broadcast is on Youtube, check it out.)

***********************************

On meeting Michael Jackson in 1988, in the middle of the Slam hysteria: "He was very nice. He didn't ask me about the Grand Slam."

***********************************

From the 1990 VS of New England: A reporter asked, "Why did you use your forehand so much?" Steffi replied with a grin, "Because it works."

***********************************

From 1994 Delray Beach: "I'm happy to give you this check for $80,000," said Ed Sherman, who represents Infiniti motor cars, the sponsor.

"How can it be a pleasure to give away $80,000?" Graf cracked.

***********************************

Also from 1994 Delray: When they asked her about her winning streak, she countered with: "It's better than a losing streak."

***********************************

From Wimbledon 1995, some poor journalistic soul had the temerity to ask: "Tell us something we don't know about you, something you've wanted to tell us that we've never asked you. You know, something that you've been waiting for us to ask you."

The answer was a rather arch: "I haven't been waiting for anything."

The reporter pressed on and Steffi talked a little bit about her dogs and then said, "You are really writing that down, huh?"

**********************************

More dogs, from Wimbledon 1992: "My dogs?" she said. "Oh, yes, I talk to them every day. I must, every day and night. I call and they tell me: `We miss you.' "

**********************************

Making fun of her yearly allergies at the 1996 French Open: Q. You sound like you have a cold. Have you? Is it serious?

STEFFI GRAF: I'm in Paris.

***********************************

Playing with the press at the 1996 French Open: Q. Anything specific you're going to be doing for fun during the next week?

STEFFI GRAF: I have nothing really on my mind, unless you've got something to tell me.

Q. What an opening. A young guy from San Francisco.

************************************

After winning the 1999 French Open, she showed up early the next morning for the customary trophy photo and interview sessions, despite being perhaps still a bit worse for wear from celebrating. When asked about the party by a German reporter, she said: "Wir haben bis halb vier auf den Tänzen getischt." Which translates to "We tabled on the dances until 3:30." Par-tay!

*************************************

Being perhaps too arithmetically subtle during her interview for breaking the record of weeks at Number One:

Q: My question is related to just the idea of thinking about records like this, it just seems to me that you probably either don't care about them or are not going to dwell on them that much, but it is kind of one that should be pretty historical. It should last a long time.

STEFFI GRAF: Definitely another couple of six, seven years.

**************************************

Somebody once asked Heinz if she was dour in private, and he told this story:

He recalled a match that Graf won easily without once lobbing a ball, despite circumstances that dictated a lob.

They talked after the match, and Gunthardt pressed her on the need to hit balls up top on occasion.

Gunthardt, who has been with Graf 2 1/2 years, says he always tries to guide Steffi into his way of thinking, never ordering her.

So, the next day during practice, he crowded the net so closely in their practice session that Graf had no way to get by him but to go over him.

Stubbornly, she refused to lob again. Not one lob the entire practice session.

"Next match, she hit a lob for a winner on a really crucial point," said Gunthardt. "And then she turned and smiled at me. That's her sense of humor."

******************************************

My own personal favorite, the moment when I became a fan for life, at Wimbledon 1988 during the final. It's the famous point in the second set with Navratilova leading 2-1, and Steffi serving at 30-15. The point is glorious, but Steffi's response is just as awesome, but it takes a close-up on the NBC replay to see it (I don't know if other sources have it). The replay shows that as she is braking her forward motion after hitting the winner, the hem of her skirt flips up. Steffi quickly flips her hem back down, and there is just the
subtlest motion around her mouth as if to say with mock self-consciousness, "How unladylike of me!" and downcasts her eyes as if to say tongue-in-cheekly, "How immodest of me!" And then keeps her eyes oh-so-humbly downcast on the way back to the baseline, but strides with a carefully restrained swagger as she dribbles the ball with her racquet. It's perfect! The director/producer did a great job of picking her reaction up.

******************************************

And this is just priceless, on so many levels; I'm sure the details are a cherished story told at many NBC behind-the-scenes-crew parties. This happened in December 1990, reported in January 1991:

On a whim, tennis star Steffi Graf ended up at the Mike Tyson-Alex Stewart heavyweight fight in Atlantic City, N.J., last month.

While in Detroit for an exhibition, Graf was interviewed by a crew for "George Michael's Sports Machine" on NBC. Afterward, the crew members said their next assignment was the fight, and they jokingly asked Graf whether she wanted to go. So Graf rented a jet and flew the crew and herself to the fight. It was barely worth it, because Tyson won with a knockout at 2:27 of the first round.

**************************************************

And I haven't scratched the surface. I mean, sometimes her humor is the off-kilter variety, or playing the bumbling fool variety, or the "brick joke" variety, so a lot of people won't/don't appreciate it, but it's there.
 
#2,411 ·
[And I haven't scratched the surface. I mean, sometimes her humor is the off-kilter variety, or playing the bumbling fool variety, or the "brick joke" variety, so a lot of people won't/don't appreciate it, but it's there.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for taking the time to post all those replies :worship::worship::worship:
Don't think the regular sports press can understand subtle humor, that would be expecting too much of them...

Few more that I can recall:

After beating Monica Seles at Wimbledon in 92:
Bud Collins: Were you afraid of her??
Steffi: Laughs and the says "no not really!!"

After 95 FO:
Bud Collins again: I haven't see you crying (or being emotional) before!!
Steffi: Then, you have just not seen me enough!!
 
#2,413 ·
An article in which Steffi and a South Florida journalist commiserate on the then-sad plight of the Miami Heat basketball team. Steffi as a loyal-yet-forlorn fan....


My Hoop Dream: Steffi Vs. Martina
CHARLES BRICKER
March 7, 1995 | Sun Sentinel

DELRAY BEACH — I see Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova in a little one-on-one hoops. I see Steffi whipping the old lady with her outside shooting. I see Martina muscling down deep for some easy baskets.

"Hmmm," Graf mused Monday. "Yes, it would be interesting. But I think she'd probably beat me up."

I don't know. The way Graf said "interesting," with a kind of faraway look in her eyes, I got the feeling the seed has been planted.

These are the two preeminent athletes in women's tennis today and it's no coincidence that two women with such adroit athletic skills in tennis would be so intensely interested in basketball.

The game has become, after tennis and soccer, the most international of sports.

Anyone who knows anything about Navratilova knows she was turned on to the game by former women's player Nancy Lieberman. She then used basketball as a cross-training exercise for tennis.

Graf's background in hoops is less well known, but she is no novice at the game, even if she hasn't shot it around in three or four years.

She learned to play growing up in Germany and when she was invited to Germany's Olympic training center to work on her tennis, she met and received some personal tutoring from the national team basketball coach.

Crazy about the Heat

How good is she? I don't know. I've never seen her handle the ball. But I've seen her play tennis enough to know that if she got serious about women's basketball, she'd be good. Damn good. Good enough to send Martina back to the Lieberman Clinic for some remedial work.

When Graf settled in Boca Raton nine years ago, her interest in basketball was heightened by the number of NBA games she could get on her TV set. And when the Heat started up, it took her, as she put it, "to a new dimension."

When she's not on the road, she shows up for Heat games more often than John Salley. And, yes, she goes as crazy as the fans in the cheap seats.

Only, she pointed out, there is a lot less to go crazy about these days at the Miami Arena.

Still, she said proudly, "I'm not giving up. I'm still going, no matter what."

Last week, she was at home in Boca with her parents, who are visiting from Germany. "We're watching the Denver game and the Heat comes from behind and I'm screaming in my seat," Graf says. "Then my mother gets into it. And the Heat loses."

Graf sags. She's living and dying with these guys.

Let 'em play at halftime

She is, to most tennis fans, generally unemotional. She goes about her business on court with clinical precision. When things don't go well, she doesn't throw rackets or kick the umpire's chair.

But at Heat games, she turns into Ms. Hyde. "That's one of the great things about America," she said.

You go to a game and the people sitting around you become your friends for a night. "They start yelling. `What's he doing?' Or, `Why did he take that shot?' And then I get into it. People are friendlier in the U.S."

You got to love the Heat a lot to drive down from Boca, about 55 miles away. But Steffi has given a lot of herself to these stiffs.

It's about time they gave something back. They don't have to put together a 10-game win streak. I'd settle for a Graf-Navratilova night.

Martina will be down here next month for the Fed Cup matches at Turnberry Isle.

How about the people running the Heat promotion department get on the honker and give her and Graf a call and set it up at halftime. First one to 15 by ones.

It will be better entertainment than the other show going on in there.
 
#2,420 ·
Nice. You should have some Polyjuice Potion while grabbing Wilson Steffi Graf racket, so you can become and play like her for a while :lol:
 
#2,423 ·
Steffi was also a very good tourist. She probably could have done advertisements for various cities' Tourism Offices.


Graf Has An Easy Time Of It
November 11, 1992
Mark Kram
Philadelphia Daily News

When Steffi Graf came to Philadelphia for the $350,000 Virginia Slims tennis tournament this week (her first visit, incidentally), she had scads to see and do. There was the Eagles-Raiders game at Veterans Stadium on Sunday, shopping in Center City on Monday and... oh, why, of course... tennis last night at the Civic Center.

The opponent was one Elena Brioukhovets and it was over in a little less than an hour. Calling on a wicked serve and superior athleticism, Graf whipped Brioukhovets, 6-0, 6-1 and... where were we?... looked forward to stopping in at the Art Museum today and seeing the Flyers tomorrow at the Spectrum. Oh, and the Liberty Bell. She also plans to see that.

"I am enjoying it," said Graf, the top seed in the tournament and two-time U.S. Open champion. "We drove in on Saturday from New York and I got to see the game Sunday."

And... ?

"Well... I think it was important for Philadelphia to win after their last three or four matches. Now Randall (Cunningham) comes back. "

We were tempted to ask Steffi her opinion of the four wideouts, but, well, tennis called... Now that she has beaten the Russian Brioukhovets (who probably took longer to get through U.S. Customs than to lose to Graf), Graf is scheduled to take on the winner of the showdown today between Zina Garrison and Conchita Martinez.

(That is, of course, if her travel agent can somehow squeeze it into her schedule.)

Graf professed to be delighted with her performance, and why not? She came, she saw, she conquered. While Brioukhovets summoned up enough to pick up a game in the second set with a smart backhand down the sideline, it was clear from the beginning she was in too deep. Graf beat to her right, beat to her left, beat her up in close to the net, and beat her deep. In the first set, when the Russian slipped a winning point down the side and grinned to herself (as if to say, "Finally!"), the relentess German spun her around with an ace that looked like something landing at Philadelphia International.

"This was one-sided, but I enjoyed it," said Graf, the winner of seven singles titles this year and the runner-up to Monica Seles for the Kraft Tour lead. "I was happy with the way I played."

Graf spoke of needing to improve her net game, but did not seem especially concerned. When asked if she was looking ahead to the Virginia Slims championships in New York next week, Graf said, no, she was concentrating on this week. Which, so far, has been a blast.

"I got this crazy T-shirt today," Graf said. "I am having a good time."

Oh, one other thing: How did you enjoy American football? How does it compare with European football?

"The two are such different sports," Graf said. "Two different types of people go to the games. In Europe, soccer is more rowdy, more crazy."

Someone should have walked her up to the 700 level. Now that would have been a sight...

HIGHS AND LOWS

Ever since Zina Garrison stunned Steffi Graf and Monica Seles at Wimbledon two years ago, before losing to Martina Navratilova in the final, she has skidded out of the upper rankings of the sport. After topping Brenda Schultz, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (9-7), yesterday Garrison conceded that her "priorities changed" in the wake of her sudden brush with stardom. Garrison said that her "dedication" for the sport seemed to dwindle.

"Wimbledon was a high and it was followed by a low," said Garrison, ranked 18th in the world and unseeded in the tournament this week. "I had to decide if I still wanted to continue doing this. The answer was yes. I still enjoy the competition, being out there with something on the line."
 
#2,426 ·
The opponent was one Elena Brioukhovets and it was over in a little less than an hour. Calling on a wicked serve and superior athleticism, Graf whipped Brioukhovets, 6-0, 6-1 and... where were we?... looked forward to stopping in at the Art Museum today and seeing the Flyers tomorrow at the Spectrum. Oh, and the Liberty Bell. She also plans to see that.

Wonder if she ever missed visiting a museum in any city that she played/visited. Always up for it.
Even during recent Taiwan visit, she made sure she went to the museum and picked up some souveniors for her kids.
 
#2,427 ·
Wonder if she ever missed visiting a museum in any city that she played/visited. Always up for it. Even during recent Taiwan visit, she made sure she went to the museum and picked up some souveniors for her kids.
I have heard gossip that a few tournament organizers figured out that if they wanted Steffi to attend a sponsor party and not act like she was trying to escape from the seventh ring of hell, they turned it into an art exhibition or photography symposium instead of the standard cocktail party and buffet line.
 
#2,428 ·
Graf And Sanchez To Meet In The Final Steffi Graf Needed Only 42 Minutes To Demolish Jennifer Capriati, 6-0, 6-1, In Their Semifinal.
November 15, 1992
Diane Pucin
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Jennifer Capriati was nothing but some poor, misplaced trout yesterday at the Civic Center, mouth open, swimming back and forth, following Steffi Graf's forehands and backhands around the court.

Capriati, the No. 4 seed, lost, 6-0, 6-1, to Graf, the No. 1 seed, in the semifinals of the Virginia Slims of Philadelphia tournament.

Graf will play Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in today's 12:45 p.m. final. Sanchez, the No. 3 seed, came back to beat No. 2 seed Gabriela Sabatini, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, last night. If Graf plays today like she did yesterday, the awards ceremony will be held about 1:30 p.m.

If only she had one more digit. Then Capriati could have counted the points she won from Graf on her fingers and toes.

Twenty-one points was all for Capriati in the 42-minute match. That's like a baseball team scoring a run every 18 innings or a football team scoring a touchdown every three weeks. It means you lose.

Capriati wasn't devastated or anything afterward. How could she be? She never had a chance. "I couldn't breathe out there," Capriati said. "She was all over me. It was like she had an answer for everything." Graf had answers before Capriati could even come up with the questions. The answers: slice backhands so low that the net seemed to duck just so Graf's ball would float over; wicked forehands that seemed to be guided by some cruel radar that allowed the ball to only land on a line, the baseline, the sidelines, the service line, always on a line.

After Graf had held her serve with the loss of one point in the first game, Capriati found out exactly how hopeless this brief afternoon would be. The 16- year-old, who has worked hard to get her serves up around 100 m.p.h. on a regular basis, couldn't win a point in the second game on her own serve. The game took less than a minute and Capriati's eyes got a little wide and her mouth formed a little pout.

Graf said that her last three matches here "have shown the best I can show." Graf, this year's 23-year-old Wimbledon champion, is particularly happy with the way she is using the court. Against Capriati, Graf used that annoyingly low slice backhand to draw Capriati wider and wider until, after two or three shots, Graf would have an entire court into which to direct her ferocious forehand.

"I know I can go for shots whenever I want," Graf said. "I am simply enjoying (tennis) very much. I am aware of everything that is happening."

After going to the Flyers' game Thursday, Graf said she enjoyed one moment in particular in Philadelphia's 8-5 win. "I especially like when (Eric) Lindros knocked a guy down and the crowd started going crazy shouting 'Er-Ric, Er-Ric.' " If this had been a hockey game yesterday, Graf would have knocked Capriati down and the crowd would have been shouting 'Stef-Fi, Stef-Fi.' "

There was lots of shouting last night. There were two Catalan flags and a rowdy balcony-level crowd for Sanchez, who comes from Barcelona, Spain, home of the Catalans and their red-and-yellow flag. But there was also an Argentine flag hanging from the balcony and even more fans cheering for Sabatini.
Story continues below.

From the start, Sanchez seemed in control. Even while Sabatini was winning the first set, it was Sanchez, the 20-year-old who won the 1989 French Open, who was dictating play. Sanchez kept Sabatini sprawling, like a hockey goalie on a bad night. Sanchez was playing well-plotted points. Every shot seemed to have a purpose, to keep Sabatini off guard. Sanchez said she knew Sabatini would try to come to the net often. Sanchez said she didn't want Sabatini at the net. Sabatini didn't get there often. Sabatini said she was tired, especially in the third set. Sanchez could take the credit because she always had Sabatini moving.

"I knew I had to be aggressive," Sanchez said. "If not, she would come into the net. From the beginning (of the match), I was hitting the ball very well. I play the important points exactly the way I was thinking to do."

Graf owns a 15-3 career advantage over Sanchez. But Sanchez's three wins have come at crucial times. The first was in the final of the '89 French Open; the second was in the semifinals of the 1991 French Open; the third was just last September, in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.

If Sanchez's match against Sabatini had lasted three more minutes (it took 2 hours, 3 minutes), it would have been three times as long as Graf's 42- minute blowout. "She's playing really well at the moment," Sanchez conceded. "But I don't have nothing to lose." Nothing but a little time, maybe a very little time.
 
#2,429 ·
Twenty-one points was all for Capriati in the 42-minute match...

Capriati wasn't devastated or anything afterward. How could she be? She never had a chance. "I couldn't breathe out there," Capriati said. "She was all over me. It was like she had an answer for everything." Graf had answers before Capriati could even come up with the questions. The answers: slice backhands so low that the net seemed to duck just so Graf's ball would float over; wicked forehands that seemed to be guided by some cruel radar that allowed the ball to only land on a line, the baseline, the sidelines, the service line, always on a line.
Wow, I would love to see this match. Just did a quick check in youtube and it isn't there. It isn't on John Pooley's list of matches either. Too bad.
 
#2,430 ·
Such a shame that Steffi won all but one match against Capriato, but the lone loss came at the 1992 Olympic final. If Steffi won that, she would have won three Olympic Gold medals in a row. This 6-0 6-1 whitewash in Philadelphia was their next match after the Olympics. Clearly, Steffi was out for blood haha.
 
#2,431 ·
This 6-0 6-1 whitewash in Philadelphia was their next match after the Olympics. Clearly, Steffi was out for blood haha.
And imagine how bad it would have been if Steffi didn't actually like Jenny.... And in 1993, when Jenny was in Steffi's quarter of the draw at the first three majors, there were "Graf avenges Olympic loss" lines in a few articles after all of them; I was thinking to myself, gee, how much "revenge" do these tennis journos think she needs?
 
#2,432 ·
Graf Beats Sanchez For Phila. Tennis Title
Steffi Graf Didn't Just Want To Win. She Wanted To Win Fast.
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario Didn't Let Her.
November 16, 1992
By Diane Pucin
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Though she complained that her play "wasn't very good," Steffi Graf, the top seed, beat Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the No. 3 seed, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, yesterday in the finals of the Virginia Slims of Philadelphia.

The match took 1 hour, 40 minutes, and that was much too long in Graf's mind.

"I just played too slow and let things happen," Graf said. "I just waited and waited and didn't step into the ball."

If this summation seems overly harsh from someone who had just won $70,000, her fourth straight tournament and her 19th straight match, well, Graf is a perfectionist. Even in Saturday's semifinal, when Graf needed only 42 minutes and nearly whitewashed poor Jennifer Capriati, 6-0, 6-1, Graf was grumbling about her serve.

Yesterday at the Civic Center, that serve was Graf's savior. In the third set, Sanchez was seldom given a chance to hustle to every ball because Graf was winning points quickly off a 95 m.p.h. first serve.

But the rest of her game wasn't as bad as Graf believed. She wasn't perfect, as she nearly had been Saturday. But Graf was still using the court in well-conceived patterns.

It's just that Sanchez can be as pesky as a 2-year-old, getting into every corner, causing trouble when you least expect it. There was no shot Sanchez wouldn't run down, no point Sanchez would give up on. Just some points that lasted too long.

"I been like this since I was a kid," Sanchez said. "I always have very good physical conditioning, and I always been very good runner."

Sanchez's game has also evolved in the last year into one of the most aggressive and varied on the tour. The 20-year-old from Barcelona, Spain, who was thrilled to see Catalan flags hanging from the balcony and who thanked a vocal Spanish cheering section in Spanish, is more likely to rush the net, try a volley, throw in a drop shot or an offensive lob than any player but Martina Navratilova.

From just being a threat on clay courts, Sanchez has moved into the top echelon of women's players and is a threat on all surfaces.

In fact, Sanchez seemed happier yesterday with the announcement that she would move past Navratilova and into the No. 4 spot on the computer rankings, her highest ever, than with her $35,000 paycheck for the week.

"What I wanted to do this year is finish No. 4, and I made it," Sanchez said. "I have a very good year, and I am very happy."

The winner wasn't so happy. Graf, 23, who has won eight tournaments this year including Wimbledon, wished she'd been more like Sanchez in the second set. Graf said she wished she had gone more to the net.

"I had her on the run," Graf said, "and on many occasions I could have gone to the net and put the points away. But I didn't move around."

The crucial game in the second set was the third. Sanchez had broken Graf's serve in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. The third game was breathtaking. It took 22 points, and Graf had five break-point chances. But the scrambling Sanchez saved them all and finally held serve and took a 3-0 lead on a service winner.

The third set was just the opposite. It was Graf who jumped into the 3-0 lead, and she didn't need any 22-point games to do it.

"Steffi served much, much better" in the third set, Sanchez said. "When she serves great, she doesn't have to think so much in the rallies."

But Graf is always thinking. About how to get better, about what is wrong, about how to be perfect.

Graf did think up the perfect "thank-you" speech for the crowd. She had attended last week's Eagles' game and the Flyers' 8-5 victory over the Islanders. "I made the Eagles win. Then I made the Flyers win. Finally I won. So I am very happy."

So happy she frowned while walking off the court. So happy she'll probably practice five hours today. So happy she may be perfect next time.

NOTES. Next year, the Virginia Slims of Philadelphia tournament will have more than double the $350,000 in prize money that was offered this year. The tournament will be worth $750,000 and be one of only seven top-level tournaments in the world.

The No. 2-seeded doubles team, Gigi Fernandez and Natalia Zvereva, beat the unseeded team of Conchita Martinez and Mary Pierce, 6-1, 6-3, to win the doubles championship and $20,000.

Yesterday's attendance of 4,607 pushed the week's total to 45,139, better than last year's 45,019. . . . Graf and Sanchez headed to New York to play in the season-ending $3 million Virginia Slims Championship at Madison Square Garden. Graf, who hasn't played Monica Seles since the Wimbledon final, is eager for another shot at Seles, the world's top-ranked player. "We haven't played for a while, and that's something I'm not very happy about," Graf said. "Hopefully, I'll get another chance soon."

That would have to be in the Slims final Sunday, because Seles is seeded No. 1 and Graf No. 2.

THE RESULTS

Seedings in parentheses.

SINGLES

Finals: Steffi Graf (1), Germany, def. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (3), Spain, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

DOUBLES

Finals: Gigi Fernandez-Natalia Zvereva (2) def. Conchita Martinez-Mary Pierce, 6-1, 6-3.
 
#2,433 ·
Nostalgic Graf not happy
The Times (London, England)
Wednesday, October 21, 1992
Andrew Longmore

THE 26th successive victory on the seafront took just 57 minutes yesterday, Steffi Graf beating Larisa Savchenko-Neiland, 6-2, 6-3, to reach the second round of the Midland Bank championship in Brighton.

Graf, though, was not happy. "No rhythm," she complained. "No rallies. I'd prefer to play a match where I can get a feel of the court. We both just went for everything." Graf was rather more accurate than the talented but erratic Latvian.

This is very much the autumnal part of the year for the Wimbledon champion, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Graf's route through the European indoor season from Leipzig (three titles out of three), through Zurich (six out of seven), to Brighton (five out of five) is well worn and highly profitable. But the nostalgic trail through her good memories does not end there.

On her day off in London on Monday, Graf took a detour to Wimbledon, just to check that her precious Centre Court was still there. "It wasn't planned. I wanted to take a look," she explained. She even managed to get in without her members' badge. "I just ran through the main entrance, so they had no chance to stop me," she said.

By happy coincidence, the Wimbledon trophies were in the process of being transported to an exhibition, allowing Graf to lift the famous plate above her head for the second time in the year. More than a touch of Martina Navratilova about that.

According to most forecasts, the Midland Bank trophy will be back in safe keeping by late Sunday afternoon as well. For, though the field is one of the strongest at Brighton for many years, there is no obvious candidate to end the German's run. No Seles, Sabatini or Sanchez Vicario.

Of the young pretenders, on view, Magdalena Maleeva has the added advantage of local knowledge. Maleeva has enlisted the help of Pavel Slozil, who guided Graf to ten grand slam titles. Having worked with Jennifer Capriati earlier in the year, Slozil is in perfect position to assess the 17-year-old Bulgarian.

"She is very talented.," Slozil said. "Maybe at the moment she has Steffi's will to win. Every match, every practice, every ball is very, very good. She is very quick. I have always said I would like to work with the men or with somebody who is not in the top ten and who doesn't have a difficult family." A pointed reference to fathers Graf and Capriati. Slozil's new charge did not let him down yesterday, beating Sabine Appelmans in straight sets.

RESULTS: Singles, first round: M Maleeva (Bul) bt S Appelmans (Bel), 6-4,

6-1; L Meskhi (Geo) bt R Zrubakova (Cz), 2-6, 6-2, 6-2; N Tauziat (Fr) bt P Fendick (US), 6-3, 6-7, 6-2; L McNeil (US) bt L Gildemeister (Peru), 4-6, 6-1, 7-5; S Graf (Ger) bt L Savchenko-Neiland (Lat), 6-2, 6-3; A Huber (Ger) bt B Schultz (Holl), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4; P Paradis-Mangon (Fr) bt K Maleeva (Bul), 3-6, 6-4, 6-1; J Novotna (Cz) bt P Hy (Can), 6-0, 6-3; C Dahlman (Swe) bt E Maniokova (CIS), 6-2, 0-6, 6-4.
 
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