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Al-Ahram Weekly 19 - 25 August 1999 Issue No. 443 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 19 - 25 August 1999 Issue No. 443
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Eclipse of a star
By Abeer AnwarTHE ANNOUNCEMENT by German tennis legend Steffi Graf that she was retiring caught the tennis world by surprise although Graf claimed she had delayed her announcement until after last week's solar eclipse. At an emotional press conference, she joked: "In fact, I wanted to give this press conference on Wednesday but I wanted to wait and see if we were still alive."
Graf, who in June won the French Open followed by an appearance in the Wimbledon final, explained: "The weeks after Wimbledon weren't easy because, for the first time, I wasn't feeling pleasure or joy. An odd feeling for me."
Her voice trembling at times, the 30-year-old former No 1 added: "Perhaps I'm lacking motivation since the victory in Paris. What I felt there was so intense that I had the feeling I'd never rediscover the same feeling again."
That French Open success went down in history as one of her most memorable, coming back from a set down to stun Swiss teen sensation Martina Hingis, reducing her to tears. She labelled that 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 triumph on the red clay of Roland Garros as her greatest-ever Grand Slam win.
The right-hander player was ranked number three in the world's rankings at the time of her retirement. Her decision comes just two weeks before the US Open.
Graf, who started playing at age four, became the second youngest player to receive a ranking on the pro tour which she joined on 18 October 1982 at 13. After playing for four months she was ranked number 124. She moved into the world's top ten in 1985 after starting the year at No 22.
The former world No 1 was born on 14 June 1969 in Bruhl, Germany. The 1.75m and 59kg Graf had dropped off the WTA Tour rankings on 8 June 1997 for the first time since 1983 due to lack of play. She reappeared in the ranking the following week at No 91.
Graf, who had never won a tournament unseeded until 1998, became the first unseeded player in the Open era to defeat the top two players in the world in the same tournament when she won the 1998 Philadelphia Open, defeating No 1 Lindsay Davenport in the final and No 2 Hingis in the quarter-finals. In the first match of the first round of the Chase Championship, Graf defeated No 3 Jana Novotna to become the first player to defeat the world's top three players in four matches.
Graf loves animals and is a spokesperson for the World Wildlife Foundation. She enjoys all kinds of music, impressionist and modern art, reading, playing cards and photography. In December 1998, she founded an international charity in association with a group of German doctors, named "Children For Tomorrow", designed to aid children suffering from depression or psychological trauma resulting from war, persecution or violence.
The German was voted by fans as the WTA tour's most exciting player in 1996 and 1998. She was the recipient of the WTA tour player of the year award from 1987 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996 and was voted in 1986 the WTA tour's most improved player. In 1996, she was named the International Tennis Federation's world champion for a record 7th time. During her 17-year career, Graf won 22 Grand Slam titles and 107 WTA titles, an Olympics gold medal in Seoul in 1988, and broke the record for successive weeks as world No 1 -- 377.
