Steffi Graf

Vocation

Notable

Traits

Family

German tennis phenomenon, winning 11 of 13 tournaments in 1987 to become the top ranking woman tennis player. Trained by her father-coach Peter Graf (born 18 June 1938) from the time she was four, she rose through German amateur ranks and turned pro at 13. At 15, she won an Olympic Gold Medal, and played at Wimbledon. Throughout her career, Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, earned 107 tournament victories on the WTA Tour, won Wimbledon seven times, the French Open six times, the U.S. Open five times, the Australian Open four times, and spent a record 377 weeks as the number one player in the world. She also earned more than $20 million. Strong willed and a hard worker, she started with her first racket at four and within a year was beating eight-year-olds. A scandal erupted in April 1990 when her dad was slapped with a suit filed by 22-year-old model Nicole Meissner who claimed his paternity of her daughter born in January, 1990. Peter allegedly paid her and a boxing promoter Eberhard Thust $424,000 to withdraw the suit. They were arrested on 19 June 1990 for extortion. The five-month trial created a hysteria in Germany comparable to the Simpson trial in California. On 24 January 1997, Peter was convicted of tax evasion of $7.4 million on her earnings and sentenced to four years in jail. Virtually unbeatable up to then, Steffi was deeply upset and her game suffered. She herself was not implicated at all in her dad's disgrace and she retained her popularity, plus public sympathy. Leaving Germany, where her boyfriend, race-car driver Michael Bartels lived, was not an option. In 1997, she was seen in a bikini in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, showing her great legs off the court and into the glamour pages. She shocked the sports world when she retired from professional tennis on 13 August 1999. Graf was quoted as saying, "I'm not just having fun anymore," at a news conference in her hometown of Bruehl, Germany. From June 1999, she was spotted in the company of Andre Agassi at various spots in N.Y. and L.A., a relationship they confirmed as a romance by August. They were married on 22 October 2001 at their Las Vegas home and their son was born the following Saturday, 26 October 2001. The tennis champions welcomed their daughter Jaz into the world on 3 October 2003 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jaz is the couple’s second child. Link to Wikipedia biography