Steffi Graf was already world number one, and just shy of 19 years old, when she began the 1988 season. The teenager had taken part at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 when tennis made its Olympic return as a demonstration sport, 60 years after it was dropped from the programme. She claimed a prestigious and symbolic victory in the final against Yugoslavia’s Sabrina Goleš on the courts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), winning 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
In 1987, Graf’s career truly took off: she won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, beating world no. 1 Martina Navratilova, and reached two finals, at Wimbledon and the US Open, losing out to Navratilova in both. American star Chris Evert, meanwhile, failed to take a set off Graf in three matches. The German, born on 14 June 1969 in Mannheim, was already showing the qualities that would lead to her being world no. 1 for 186 consecutive weeks from 17 August 1987: incredible footwork, a devastating forehand, an effective backhand and a powerful, reliable serve – an all-round game that proved successful on every surface.
Irrepressible from the Australian Open in January to the US Open in September
On 24 January 1988, on a Rebound Ace surface on Centre Court in Melbourne, Graf took on Evert in the final of the Australian Open. She did not drop a set en route to the final, defeating Czechoslovakia’s Hana Mandlíková in the quarter-final and compatriot Claudia Kohde-Kilsch in the semi-final. In the final, Evert was completely overwhelmed in the first set, losing 6-1. The American then took her opponent to a tie-break in the second set, eventually going down 7-3. First Grand Slam victory of the year for Graf: 6-1, 7-6.
Five months later, the world no. 1 was in peerless form on the clay courts of Roland Garros. Once again, she reached the final without conceding a single set. And on 5 June 1988, the match for the championship against the Soviet Union’s Natasha Zvereva lasted a mere 34 minutes, with Zverera mustering only a few points in a 6-0, 6-0 whitewash. Next up were the grass courts of Wimbledon, where Graf was never in any danger until the final, when she came up against six-time defending champion Navratilova, unbeaten since 1981. The 19-year-old Graf lost the first set 7-5 before getting the measure of her rival and fighting back to take the next two sets 6-2, 6-1.
Then on 11 September in New York, Graf became the first woman to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year since Australia’s Margaret Smith-Court in 1970. Yet again, she dropped a minimal number of games on the DecoTurf surface at Flushing Meadows and took full advantage of Evert’s forfeit in the semi-final. Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini reached her first ever final, but Graf secured a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory.
