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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:
 
#1,690 ·
+1

She had ability and in form to win some more slams at that time,but our player doesn't play for records anywhere in her career.

I read so many other player fans also agree the difference b/w the tennis before and after her retirement.

But she found next steps in life. Marriage,Children,Charity works...etc!

She's not only an inspiration,but also a wife,a mother,a kind person and more.
 
#1,691 ·
#1,692 ·
Calimero(Max, a Steffi fanatic) posted this text yesterday on a Google group:
Steffi Graf retired 12 years ago (1999).
And the Berlin Wall was built 50 years ago (1961).
what a coincidence?
 
#1,694 ·
Reading Darren Cahill's responses to the readers and Steffi was mentioned in two of the answers.

Scott Shafer- Is it any longer possible to reach the top of the women's game with a slice backhand a la Graf, Navralitova? Or does the primary backhand need to provide power?

Darren Cahill- The slice backhand is still a great shot in the women's game. A lot of the Adidas players come through Las Vegas as a part of the Adidas Player Development Program to train and Steffi hits with them at every opportunity. All of the players STILL struggle to deal with Steffi's backhand slice! The advantages of the double handed backhand has seen the slice disappear to a large extent but it's still a very valuable shot if executed well. Not only can it be an offensive weapon, but it's crucial for staying in points when you are in a defensive position and allows you a little more hang time to recover back into the court. With the power in the game today, if you can keep the slice low, it makes it a lot tougher for your opponent to generate their own power, and it's still the best way to approach the net when that ball drops short and low in the service box. The bad movers in the women's game generally do not have a good b/h slice. The good movers do!

Elizabeth Keller- We are going to state finals this weekend and in districts a few teams were playing mind games during the warm up. What is a good way to deal with that behavior and do you cause trouble back or point it out to them. It was frustrating. Thank you

Darren Cahill- Ignore them. Mind games from your opponent will only work if you bite and they think they are getting somewhere. Let your racket do the talking when you get on court and keep the focus on what you are trying to achieve, and that is simply to WIN.

Engaging in mind games or constant chatter back and forth will only lend itself to confusing your game plan and clouding your thinking.

If your opponents are carrying on with some funny business during the warm up, it's because they are unsure of their ability to win.

Plus, you need to rise above it. Next time it happens, ask yourself how would Steffi Graf handle this situation? She would handle it with class, she would say nothing, she would probably give a little smile that would scare the hell out of her opponent, and then she would go on court and beat the living daylights out of her opponent.

Also, make sure you keep your energy levels up in the first few games to show that you've been anything but intimidated, and that you are there to win. You will be surprised how quickly the bluff on the other side of the net loses belief.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150265969903946
 
#1,697 ·
Alfa, you posted this on another thread:
"Can you imagine Chris blatantly ignoring the Graf request at Wimbledon that she not be subjected to any questions about her father? Remember, Graf just hissing "stop it Tracy" and getting up and leaving the interview. Tracy was so smug with her nasty little face as if she'd accomplished some journalistic coup. I just felt the urge to throw water at her!"

Can you illuminate me about this incident????
 
#1,701 ·
She only played Patty Schnyder once- a QF loss at the US Open. It was Graf's first major back after having knee surgery and being out of competition for nearly all of 1997 (the year Hingis won so much, so put that into perspective not having to play Steffi for that great year).
 
#1,702 ·
this is just something i can recall based on my memory alone (so i could be wrong). I think it's only against Jo Durie (0-1). But to me it was not fair, coz they played only once, that was in Wimbledon 1984, when Steffi just turned 15 and Jo was in the top 10. It was a tight match too (7-9 in the 3rd set). Had they played more after that, I'm very sure Steffi would have had a winning record against her as well :)
 
#1,716 ·
I've always been curious on how many matches that Steffi won 6-0 6-0 in her career. If I counted correctly from SGISC website, she double-bagelled her opponents 21 times.
She even beat a player by the name of Rene Simpson 6-0 6-0 twice in a row!
And there are many (and I mean many!) matches which she won 6-1 6-0 or 6-0 6-1 too. Gosh, it must be soooooo darn hard to play her.........
 
#1,717 ·
It was probally really hard to direct the ball to her backhand. Nobody had Steffi's mental game when she was playing, no where near close. So that is why everbody expect for seles, sanchez-viciraio, and martina were scared to play her. That is why I think she won so many love sets.
 
#1,718 ·
I observe some other player's fans posting about Steffi&her fans on their player's threads.They say that they are open minded,not jealous and good fans.But when reading their posts (even those posts are without linking their favorites),many of those posts sound they are jealous and they are wasting their free time to making sleeping pills.
 
#1,722 ·
Yes thanks so much for the link, great read;) How lucky :mad::lol:
I never met anyone while going to the bathroom:eek:
And to be honest if I had been this woman I probably would have suffered a heart attack:lol:
More seriously I don't know If I would have had the guts to ask her for a picture and an autograph, actually I think no words would have come out of my mouth so...
 
#1,721 ·
#1,726 ·
djul14;20170167... don't know If I would have had the guts to ask her for a picture and an autograph said:
You wouldn't have had time to think. I met her twice, and I've never seen a tennis player move so quickly! After a match in Philadelphia, I was talking to Janella Rachelle (Steffi's photographer), and suddenly there was Graf in front of me. I had 2 seconds (literally) to shove my coffee table book in front of her, which she signed, but the whole thing was almost like a blur, that's how fast she moves. I know this because of a similar incident a few years earlier after another Steffi match win. She came out of the little press tent on her way to the locker room, and it was all I could do to stick my program out for her to scribble on- the people standing next to me didn't even realize it was her- expecting some kind of entourage to emerge, but zing- she was nearly running, and poof! she was gone. That's how fast she walks!
 
#1,729 ·
Did you guys see this link? http://m.yahoo.com/w/sports/home/bl...id=7GmZLOB.ybnqc_80O5K_Rj_x&.intl=US&.lang=en

If you scroll all the way down, you see this:

"On the day Connors beat Krickstein, Steffi Graf was set to play the next match. Twice she was asked if she wanted to move her match to Grandstand so she wouldn't have to wait. Both times she declined, saying she wanted to see Connors play."

I think it's cool that Steffi was really interested to watch the Connors match even if it meant her own match was delayed. (It does make me wonder though if the delay of her match had any impact on her overall fitness in the tournament and thus her eventual semifinal loss to Navratilova in the semis LOL)
 
#1,733 ·
At Clinic for Young Players, Graf Emphasizes the Fun
By KAREN CROUSE
At the Harlem Tennis Center, the Hall of Fame tennis player Steffi Graf was trading shots Thursday morning with a scrawny boy using a scaled-down racket. They were playing on the backcourt of a regulation-size court, with a net stretched from the service line to the baseline, and using oversize foam balls.

The tennis clinic, sponsored by the watchmaker Longines, was part of the QuickStart program, a United States Tennis Association initiative to introduce the game to children 10 and younger. Graf, 42, and her husband, Andre Agassi, also a Hall of Famer, are spokespersons for QuickStart, which is based on the premise that the effort required to hit a ball over the net shouldn’t outweigh the fun of it.

Graf, whose earliest memories of tennis are of hitting balls in her family’ s house in Germany with a sawed-down racket over a leather couch at the age of 3, said, “With tennis at a young age, it is really overwhelming. It’s intimidating. To have a chance to play on a smaller court with a lighter racket, you have a much better chance early on to have success by connecting.”

The children of Graf and Agassi have not formed a strong attachment to tennis, their parents’ 30 combined Grand Slam singles titles notwithstanding. Given that both Graf and Agassi were pushed in tennis by overbearing fathers, it might not be so surprising that they are keen to let their children find and follow their own passions.

Jaden Gil, 9, plays baseball but has become passionate about golf since recently picking up a club he found in the family’s garage.

“He’s been crazy about it every day,” Graf said.

Jaz Elle, 7, takes piano lessons (as does her brother), and has taken an interest in hip-hop dancing and horseback riding.

Graf said, “We’re constantly saying, the best thing tennis has given us apart from finding each other is we have the chance to spend time with our kids as they grow up and be there for the baseball tournaments and the dance recitals.” She added, “Andre and I both want to learn from them more than we’re trying to teach them, because we both believe a lot of what they learn is by watching more than by anything you say.”

Of Graf’s 22 Grand Slam singles titles, five came at the United States Open. One of her most impressive fortnights at Flushing Meadows was in 1988 when she lost only 13 games in her first five matches (excluding a walkover) and then defeated Gabriela Sabatini in the final, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Asked about the play at this year’s tournament of Serena Williams, who has lost 23 games en route to the semifinals, Graf said, “To me she is the clear favorite. She misses almost a year and then comes back and wins her second tournament? To me that shows what a great athlete she is and how much talent she has. Her power and her ball-striking and athleticism is great to watch.”

http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.c...ic-for-young-players-graf-emphasizes-the-fun/
 
#1,739 ·
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