Thanks for your post Marylinda, I enjoyed reading it, and thought you had some good points, but just for the fun of 'debate' let me attempt to pick it part a little and discuss it more....
<br />"She won the French 6 times and clay is her worst surface. That pretty much says it all for me. Steffi could play on any surface, anywhere, against anyone. Martina did a wonderful job in winning the French twice and making the finals 3 years running but she was never the clay courter that Steffi was"
Martina won the French in 82 and 84, she didnt play it at all during 76,77,78,79,80... She lost the finals to Evert (the # 3 player of ALL-TIME, in your opinion), on her best surface, and even walloped her 6-3 6-1 in 84...
But let me ask you - Who would have stopped Martina if Chris had been stabbed in say, 84??
I mean, lets get serious about Graf's 6 French victories, I give her 3 of those 'cleanly'... 93, and 95 + 96, are all very tainted IMO....I def credit her with 87, 88 and 99 victories though...
I just think although its 6 French Opens to 2, I think Maritna had much more competition, and less 'help' than Steffi had....
<br />The other thing I MUST pick at, is your claim that you'd have Navratilova and Graf EQUAL on grass???
I mean, if anything, Martina is INAURGUABLY (IMO <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> ) the clearcut best all-time grass court player!!!
Reaching the finals at 37??? I mean the fact is Graf DID not continue playing, so its unfair to Martina who did continue to play, and did continue to endure the tour, that her logevity accomplishments can be written off with a simple "If graf kept playing, she'd have a chance at breaking those records"....uh-uh, Graf can barely jog these days, let alone play.....
I agree with you about Everts consitency, truley remarkable...But I think that adds weight to Martina's claim... She managed 18 slams in the same era competing directly with Evert... Grafs main rival was conveniently taken out, and her career numbers are inflated accordingly....