It would have been so easy for Graf to have retired after she injured her knee in 1997....she had nothing left to prove....yet she came back and won four more tournaments including the french open and reached the final of Wimbledon before retiring ranked no. 3 in the world which was a record at the time. It was nice that she left the game on her own terms....and at the top.
I think she wanted to see if she could do it one more time, not just win a major, but play at her level. And, she did in what has to be one of the most storybook endings to any sports career. She played some beautiful tennis at the 1999 French Open, specifically versus Davenport and Seles. It was classic Graf. ... The Graf/Davenport match is as good as power tennis gets on French clay.
I think beating Venus in the quarters of Wimbledon ‘99 was probably the greatest performance of her return, particularly given that she had lost to Venus twice earlier that year. We all know that Venus went on to lift the Wimbledon trophy in 2000 and 2001 and 5 times in total. At that point Graf had beaten them all, Serena, Venus, Davenport, Hingis and her greatest rival Seles. She had nothing left to prove.
Interesting match, thanks for the upload. All german matches on the pro tour were rare for graf, even against Huber she only met her 10 times in the pro ranks and glass only this time. Entertaining highlights, Grafs forehand and 1st serve worked well after the long lay off, but her slice backhand let her down in this match. Usually that shot was rock solid and the forehand was the risky shot but here it was different Im happy graf went on to try her injury riddled comeback even though she suffered 21 defeats in three years (97 to 99) when in her prime she would only lose 2 or max 3 matches a year, but she showed on a good day she could still beat anyone out there.
Her german shepherd is so cute!
It would have been so easy for Graf to have retired after she injured her knee in 1997....she had nothing left to prove....yet she came back and won four more tournaments including the french open and reached the final of Wimbledon before retiring ranked no. 3 in the world which was a record at the time. It was nice that she left the game on her own terms....and at the top.
I think she wanted to see if she could do it one more time, not just win a major, but play at her level. And, she did in what has to be one of the most storybook endings to any sports career. She played some beautiful tennis at the 1999 French Open, specifically versus Davenport and Seles. It was classic Graf. ... The Graf/Davenport match is as good as power tennis gets on French clay.
I think beating Venus in the quarters of Wimbledon ‘99 was probably the greatest performance of her return, particularly given that she had lost to Venus twice earlier that year. We all know that Venus went on to lift the Wimbledon trophy in 2000 and 2001 and 5 times in total. At that point Graf had beaten them all, Serena, Venus, Davenport, Hingis and her greatest rival Seles. She had nothing left to prove.
Gracias Steffi!!😍🙌🏽
Interesting match, thanks for the upload. All german matches on the pro tour were rare for graf, even against Huber she only met her 10 times in the pro ranks and glass only this time.
Entertaining highlights, Grafs forehand and 1st serve worked well after the long lay off, but her slice backhand let her down in this match. Usually that shot was rock solid and the forehand was the risky shot but here it was different
Im happy graf went on to try her injury riddled comeback even though she suffered 21 defeats in three years (97 to 99) when in her prime she would only lose 2 or max 3 matches a year, but she showed on a good day she could still beat anyone out there.
la Inolvidable Steffi, mi gran favorita por siempre