Stefanie (“Steffi”) Graf | Former German Tennis Pro and Champion

Although she now lives in Las Vegas, Stefanie Maria Graf was born in Mannheim, West Germany on 14 June 1969. She would later become the world’s number one female tennis player. In the 1980s and 1990s Graf was ranked the top woman player by the Women’s Tennis Association for a record 377 weeks (186 consecutive).

A recent photo of Andre and Stefanie. The couple have been married since 2001. They now have two adult children and live in Summerlin, Nevada, in the Las Vegas area. More below. PHOTO: Andre Agassi, Instagram

Graf reigned over women’s tennis for 13 years, breaking many records in the process. When she retired from professional tennis in 1999 she was still ranked world No. 3. She continues to play exhibition matches, usually for charity fundraising events. In support of the Elton John Aids Foundation in 2010, she and her husband, Andre Agassi, were on Team Elton John, which competed against Team Billie Jean King.

Early Years
At the age of three, in her small hometown of Brühl (pop. 14,000, near Mannheim and Heidelberg in the state of Baden-Württemberg), Stefanie was introduced to tennis by her father, Peter Graf (1938-2013), who gave her a sawed-off racket she could start swinging in the family’s living room. A year later she was practicing on a tennis court, and played in her first tennis tournament at the age of five. Her father, a former car and insurance salesman, became interested in tennis himself at the age of 27 and became a relatively successful regional player before becoming a tennis coach. He could see the potential tennis talent in his young daughter, and he began a training and match regime designed to realize that potential. Over the years, as her manager, he carefully controlled Steffi’s career.

»Ich glaub’, ich bin immer schon eisern gewesen, ich glaub’, schon als Kind«
“I think I was always tough as iron, I think even as a child.” – Steffi Graf, quoted in Die Zeit (1997)

Andre Agassi’s 2009 autobiographical OPEN is a highly praised and frank memoir.
GET IT: Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi (from Amazon.com)

By the time she was eleven, the German press had already begun using the term “Wunderkind” to describe the young tennis player from the state of Baden-Württemberg. In the early eighties Graf began her rise in the world tennis rankings. From No. 124 in 1983, she was sixth by 1985. At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Graf represented West Germany by winning the demonstration match when she was only 15 years old.

German Tennis Fever
In the 1980s and 1990s, Germany was often in a state of tennis fever. With Boris Becker and Steffi Graf, West Germany was for a time the leading nation in both men’s and women’s and tennis. Every summer there was hardly a TV set in all of Germany that was not tuned to the broadcast of a Wimbledon match with either Boris (3 wins) or Steffi (7 wins) on the court. On 7 July 1985, 11 million West German TV viewers cheered as the 17-year-old Becker won his first Wimbledon contest by defeating Kevin Currens. In 1988, it was Graf’s turn. After losing to her in 1987, Steffi beat six-straight-Wimbledon title holder Martina Navratilova in a hard-fought tournament on Wimbledon’s grass.

A photo from a 2011 German interview of Steffi Graf in the German magazine SUPERillu. The German title means “Homesickness never comes up at all.”

“Fräulein Vorhand”
Already in her early years, Graf showed the exceptional talent of a rare athlete. She had a combination of leverage and strength that produced a powerful tennis stroke. Her forehand was so bullet-like, it earned her the nickname “Fräulein Vorhand” (“Miss Forehand”) – and great respect and fear from her opponents. Her one-handed backhand wasn’t bad either. She was also good on any kind of court surface. (But she preferred grass.) By 1986 Graf had become the top challenger to “elder ladies” Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. After several prior losses, Graf’s first win against Evert came at Hilton Head, South Carolina in April 1986.

Graf’s Grand Slam Year
In 1987 Graf attained the top spot in world women’s tennis for the first time. She would win 75 of the 77 games she played that year. An injury kept her out of the Australian Open in Melbourne, but she went on to defeat Martina Navratilova at the French Open (on clay at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris). With her victory over Chris Evret at Manhattan Beach, California on August 17, she became the number one player in world women’s tennis.

In 1988 Graf achieved a Career Grand Slam (winning the four major tournaments): the 1987 French Open, 1988 Australian Open, 1988 Wimbledon and 1988 US Open. She also added a Career Golden Slam by winning the singles Olympic gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, an honor her husband, Andre Agassi also achieved: Wimbledon (1992), the US Open (1994), the Australian Open (1995), the 1996 Olympic gold medal and the French Open (1999). (Rafael Nadal is the only other tennis player in the world to do this.)

In 1989 Graf got her second Wimbledon win (against Navratilova, Evret and Seles). Despite some losses, at the end of 1990, Graf was still ranked No. 1 in the world. But 1991 was not a good year for her. Injuries and losses to several challengers, most notably Monica Seles and Gabriela Sabatini, made this less than an ideal year for Graf. She decided to drop her longtime Czech coach Pavel Složil. Her new coach, Heinz Gunthardt, would stay with her until her retirement in 1999.

Monica Seles and the Obsessed Steffi Graf Fan
On April 13, 1993 the world was shocked by the on-court stabbing of Monica Seles (1973- ) in Hamburg. During a match with Magdalena Maleeva, in which Seles was leading 6-4, 4-3, a 38-year-old unemployed eastern German man attacked Seles with a knife during a break. It turned out that the perpetrator was a crazed fan of Steffi Graf. Günter Parche stabbed Seles just below her left shoulder blade, he claimed, in order to help Graf regain the world number-one slot (which she did in June 1993). Mostly for psychological reasons, Seles was unable to compete for 28 months after the crime. Graf herself expressed dismay when a German court later gave Parche a light sentence for his attack on Seles (two years’ probation and psychological treatment). Serbian-born Monica Seles vowed never to return to Germany, and she never has. She became a US citizen in 1994 and now lives in Sarasota, Florida. She played her last professional match in 2003. Parche, now in his late fifties, lives quietly with his aunt in Görsbach, Thuringia, in a room decorated with pictures of Steffi Graf. (See our link to Seles’ autobiography Getting a Grip below.)

1992: Boris Becker and now ex-wife Barbara Feltus attend a reception for Queen Elizabeth II in Germany. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

Graf sat out the 1992 Australian Open due to injury. (Australia was something of a curse for Steffi; injuries kept her out of that January event several times during her career.) At the French Open she lost to Monica Seles, but later beat her at Wimbledon. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, she lost to Jennifer Capriati in the finals, winning a silver medal.

In 1993, Graf’s return to Australia was marred by a loss to Monica Seles. But after Seles was attacked in April and knocked out of competition for over two years (see above), Graf went on to win the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. She regained the No. 1 women’s tennis world ranking on June 7, 1993.

In 1994 Graf won the Australian Open, becoming only the second woman to win a non-calendar-year Grand Slam. (Navratilova had done it in 1983-1984.) The following year, despite having yet again to skip the Australian Open because of injury, Graf won the French Open, Wimbledon and the 1995 US Open (defeating Seles), which made her the only woman ever to win each of the four Grand Slam singles titles at least four times.

The Australian “injury curse” struck again in 1996. As she had done in 1995, Graf went on to win the other three major tournaments and beat Seles at the 1996 US Open. She also broke Martina Navratilova’s record of most total weeks as the top player in the world – and won her 100th career tournament. Graf was named the WTA Player of the Year for a record eighth time.

In 1997 she was finally able to compete again in the Australian Open, but she lost to Amanda Coetzer in the last round. The year was also one in which Graf had two knee surgeries and more missed tournaments, dropping the German champ to the world No. 3 spot for the first time since 1987. Martina Hingis was now No. 1.

A guide to Graf’s 2008 fitness program aimed at the typical woman. PHOTO: Wunderlich Verlag

1998 was a tough year in which Graf tried to get back in form and regain her top spot. She missed both the Australian and French major tournaments. She had poor showings at Wimbledon and the US Open. Following minor surgery on her right wrist to remove a bone spur in September 1998, Graf returned to the tennis court in November in Leipzig, where she went on to win the title and surpass Martina Navratilova as the top prize money-winner in women’s sports ever. Graf finished 1998 ranked ninth.

1999: Graf’s Last Year as a Pro
The highlight of Graf’s last year in professional tennis came with her victory at the 1999 French Open, her record ninth. The icing on the cake was her defeat of rivals Lindsay Davenport (No. 2), Monica Seles (No. 3) and then top-ranked Martina Hingis. At Wimbledon, although she first beat Venus Williams and Mirjana Lucic, in her final round she lost to Davenport. Then a hamstring injury at the TIG Tennis Classic in San Diego in August 1999 turned out to be the last straw. At the age of 30, ranked third in the world, Germany’s tennis darling announced her immediate retirement from professional tennis. Steffi Graf would end her career with record total prize winnings of $21,895,277* and a total of 107 titles.

Stefanie Graf’s Life Today
The German surname “Graf” means “count” (title of nobility) in English. Although she can afford to live like a countess, Graf prefers a quiet, normal family life with her husband and two children in Nevada. Long known as “Steffi,” since her 2001 marriage the ex-tennis-pro now prefers to be called by her real given name: Stefanie. She and her husband Andre Agassi now make their home in Summerlin, an upscale community in the Las Vegas area. Her father and former manager, Peter, died of pancreatic cancer in 2013. Her mother Heidi and Graf’s younger brother Michael also live in Summerlin. Stefanie is a permanent resident in the US, and married to an American citizen, but she still has German citizenship.

Graf first dated Agassi in 1999, the year she retired from tennis, and he divorced Brooke Shields. (Stefanie dropped her longtime boyfriend, German racing driver Michael Bartels.) The tennis couple married in October 2001, and now have two grown children: a son (Jaden Gil, born in 2001) and a daughter (Jaz Elle, born in 2003). The couple have made their home in Las Vegas, Nevada, Agassi’s hometown. Both parents have declared that they came to hate tennis, and they refused to pressure their children into any sport (especially tennis) or field, the way their own parents did. Jaden tried several things, including soccer and hip-hop dancing, before becoming a top-ranked Major League Baseball pitching prospect who played baseball in high school and later as a student at the University of Southern California (USC). Daughter Jaz has tried tennis and golf, but more for enjoyment than with thoughts of going pro. She has also shown talent in the fields of fashion and dancing.

Both Graf and Agassi have established charitable foundations and run philanthropic projects that often find them traveling around the country and the globe. Stefanie has her Children for Tomorrow (founded 1998), and Andre has his Andre Agassi Foundation for Education (founded 1994) – both designed to improve educational opportunities for children who might not otherwise be able to reach that goal. Children for Tomorrow has projects in Hamburg, Eritrea, Kosovo, and Uganda. The Agassi Foundation works to improve public education with its own school (Agassi Prep, a K-12 charter school in Las Vegas) and by investing in educational technology, and promoting better teaching methodologies.

Graf (like her husband) has long been a brand ambassador/spokesperson for various German and international brands, including Longines (since 2008), Teekanne (tea, since 2006), Feiler (textiles, towels; since 2019) and others. She uses the proceeds from her endorsements to help fund her causes. But the Agassis lead a normal, down-to-earth family life in a town known more for colorful excess. During a visit to USC in Los Angeles, several people who had chatted with Stefanie Graf in the tennis stands were later surprised to learn they had just met a famous former tennis star. They never would have learned that from the unpretentious Ms. Graf herself.

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*Graf held the income record for women’s tennis until Lindsay Davenport exceeded it in January 2008.

Related Pages
AT THE GERMAN WAY

• German Sports – Part 1 – Soccer is king! But there are other popular sports in Germany.
• Notable Women – Notable females from Austria, Germany, Switzerland

BOOKS from Amazon.com

• Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi. Knopf, 2009, hardcover. Graf’s husband has written a very frank and interesting memoir about his life and career – and how Steffi’s love and quiet strength helped him become a better person. Kindle, paper, hardcover.
• Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self by Monica Seles. Avery, 2010, hardcover. Chronicles Monica’s success on the tennis circuit where, at age sixteen, she became the youngest winner in French Open history. But success had a price. For over two years she struggled with depression and eating disorder after the 1993 knife attack in Hamburg. She frankly discusses her efforts to make a comeback after that. Kindle, paper, hardcover.

Stefanie Graf Bios and Articles
Unfortunately, there is only one currently available biography of Stefanie Graf in English, and none in German. Andre Agassi’s 2009 autobiography, Open (above) is also a good source of information about his wife. Monica Seles published her autobiography in 2010, which of course covers her matches with Graf and the knife attack in Germany. (See above.)

• Outstanding Sportsman’s Biography: Steffi Graf by Ileen Bear, 2017. Paperback. A bio of Graf in the “Sportsman” series that covers notable sports figures from childhood to their rise to fame and becoming a global icon. It’s really a list of her stats, not a true biography, but it’s the only one available now.
• Steffi: Public Power, Private Pain by Sue Heady. Virgin, 1995, hardcover and paperback. Covers her life and career up to 1995.
• Where Are They Now?: “Steffi Graf Is Still Too Famous for Steffi Graf” – A well-written 2022 Sports Illustrated article by Jon Wertheim about Stefanie Graf’s life with husband Andre Agassi today. Best quote: “[Graf] would sooner eat Wimbleton grass than write a confessional memoir like [Agassi’s] Open.”
• Reiche Steffi, armes Kind. Die Akte Graf by Klaus Brinkbäumer, Hans Leyendecker und Heiner Schimmöller. A 1996 German book about the Graf tax scandal: “Rich Steffi, Poor Child: The Graf File”
• Danke, Steffi. Die unvergeßlichen Jahre der Königin des Centre Court by Rolf Hauschild, Hansjörg Falz, Paul Zimmer. In German (“The unforgettable years of the Queen of Centre Court”). Sportverlag, 1999, hardcover.

GRAF ON THE WEB

• Stefanie Graf – Official Website – www.steffi-graf.net – In English or German.
• Stefanie Graf (Children for Tomorrow) – Facebook – Last updated in December 2022
• Vogue (Germany) Interview mit Stefanie Graf – Cover interview (June 2022) in German. Note: Graf is not interested in fame at all. Her media presence is always about her charities and causes. In this case for her Children for Tomorrow foundation, established in 1998.
• SUPERillu magazine: “Heimweh kommt gar nicht erst auf” – Online version of the Graf article in SUPERillu, about her life with Andre – in German (Oct. 2011)
• Mrs. Sporty – Steffi Graf’s international women’s fitness franchise, explained in English. Locations currently only in Europe.
• Steffi Graf Biografie – in German from HDG (Haus der Geschichte, Bonn) and LeMO
• Steffi Graf – Biografie – from Dieter Wunderlich in German
• Warum Steffi Graf nicht bei Beckers Hochzeit war (Die Welt) – Interesting article (2009) about how Boris and Steffi have gone their separate ways (in German).

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