Stefanie Maria Graf (born June 14, 1969, in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany) is a former World No. 1 ranked female tennis player from Germany. Billie Jean King said in 1999, "Steffi is definitely the greatest women's tennis player of all time."[2] Martina Navratilova has included Graf on her list of great players.[3] In December 1999, Graf was named the greatest female tennis player of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by the Associated Press.[4] Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, named her as the best female player of the 20th century.[5] Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Court's 24. Graf is the only player to have won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments (Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open) at least four times each. In 1988, Graf won the Olympic gold medal in singles and all four Grand Slam singles titles that year, becoming the first and only player to win the "Golden Slam". She was ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a record 377 total weeks – the longest of any player, male or female, since the WTA and the Association of Tennis Professionals begain issuing rankings – and Graf also holds the record (eight) for most years as year end World No. 1.[6] Graf won 107 singles titles, which ranks her third on the WTA's list of most singles titles won during the open era, behind Martina Navratilova (167 titles) and Chris Evert (154 titles). A notable feature of Graf's game was her versatility across all playing surfaces. She won six French Open singles titles (second to Evert) and seven Wimbledon singles titles (third behind Navratilova and Helen Wills Moody). She is the only singles player to have achieved a Calendar Year Grand Slam across all three types of tennis courts, as the other Calendar Year Grand Slams won by other players occurred when the Australian and US Opens were still played on grass. Graf reached thirteen consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, from the 1987 French Open through the 1990 French Open, winning nine of them. She played in 36 Grand Slam singles tournaments from the 1987 French Open through the 1996 US Open, reaching the finals 29 times and winning 21 titles. Her 22nd and last Grand Slam singles title was the 1999 French Open. She reached 31 Grand Slam singles finals, third overall behind Evert (34 finals) and Navratilova (32 finals).[citation needed] Graf retired in 1999 while she was ranked World No. 3. She is married to the former World No. 1 men's tennis player Andre Agassi.
