July 13, 1999. Copyright, 1999, Graphic News. All rights reserved

FRAULEIN FOREHAND CALLS IT A DAY
By Julie Mullins

LONDON, July 13, Graphic News:  STEFFI GRAF, who has announced she will retire from the WTA Tour at the end of the season, can arguably lay claim to the title of the worldÕs greatest woman tennis player.
While Margaret Court leads the list of Grand Slam winners Ð 24 to SteffiÕs 22 Ð 11 of CourtÕs total were gained at the Australian Open, in an era when the competition was perhaps not of the same standard it enjoys today.
And, while much was made of AndrŽ AgassiÕs achievement in becoming only the fifth man to win all four Grand Slam titles when he captured the French Open this year, Graf is the only player Ð male or female Ð to have won them all at least four times.
Her golden season in 1988 saw her scoop all four Grand Slams and round off the year with the Olympic gold medal.
While this feat was never to be repeated, she would go on to win three of the four Grand Slams in 1989, 1993 and 1995. She held the No. 1 ranking for a record 377 weeks, including a consecutive streak of 186 weeks Ð another record Ð from August 1987 to March 1991.
Currently third in the WTA rankings behind Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis, she is also the second-highest money-winner of 1999, having already banked over $1 million in the year to date.
With total career earnings in excess of $20m, life outside the tour promises to be comfortable. Fortunately for her legions of fans, Steffi says that although retired from the Tour, she still intends to play, and enjoy, her tennis.
ÒI donÕt plan to disappear.Ó

Sources: Reuters, Corel WTA Tour