This was the very first tennis match I ever watched. I was a bored 16 year old kid on a hot summer day. I came into the house, turned the tv on and threw myself on the sofa.I became a tennis ,and more importantly, a Steffi Graf fan this very day. Thanks for sharing this great memory!
But stopped playing the drive thru backhand! Which I find crazy as she passed durie nearly every time at the net..... but the top spin back hand disappeared into her later career by 88 infact
@@paddylewis6818 Graf was regularly hitting topspin backhands against net rushers in 1988 and 1989. If you look at her matches against Navratilova in 1988 and 1989, you can see that she hit them consistently. I think her topspin backhand disappeared closer to 1990 after she broke her thumb in a skiing accident. In fact, her down the line slice backhand also kind of disappeared in the early 90s along with her topspin backhand. She brought her down the line slice backhand into full force by 1995 though.
At age 15, you can already tell how much potential Steffi Graf had. You can truly see glimpses of her famous forehand though not as powerful because of her youth but gosh, it became incredibly deadly in just 2-3 years. The rest of her tennis such as her serve, backhand, etc. would become more stronger and refined, and she would grow more athletic. I did read some comments about Steffi’s handshake. I do have to acknowledge that at times, Steffi would give curt handshakes but you must realize the all time greats are very driven and do not like to lose. They all had their moments including Serena, Martina N., and Chris but Steffi overall was very professional and respectful. We all know there are other greats who, without mentioning any names, were very disrespectful to their competitors and tennis officials both on and off the court with their behavior and disparaging comments. I’ll give you a hint ... it’s not Steffi!
It's also typical of that era. A handshake was just a handshake. It was just a procedure. It's not like now where players are expected to put on a show.
Once the rally gets started, watch Steffi’s footwork. She got faster and better with court positioning, but even at 15 she danced and floated around the court.
Durie was a semifinalist at the French Open in 1983, losing in three sets to 1977 Champion Mimi Jaušovec, and a semifinalist at the US Open, losing respectfully to Evert, 6-4, 6-4. Durie was a quarter finalist or better at least once in each grand slam singles event. She was also twice a mixed doubles champion: 1987 Wimbledon and 1991 Australian, both with countryman Jeremy Bates.
She was not all that good. In these highlights, we often see her vollying in a way that she simply plays the ball in Steffi's hands, thereby making a winning point by Steffi inevitable.
Graf was already then looked like someone who is a born grass baseline player....probably the greatest of all time of that kind. Especially at her era when the Wimbledon's courts and balls were faster as much as the whole game then nowadays..to see someone winning 7 single titles ....Miracle.
Few weeks later Graf won the Gold medal at the Olympics in Los Angeles... unfortunately it was demonstration, so the medal win was inofficial. 4 years later she completed her Golden Slam!
@@kloatlanta That loss to Capriati in Barcelona was kind of shocking to me. Graf had such a dominating head to head record against Capriati. But I honestly thought Graf looked second-rate in that match. She continued to look second rate throughout the U.S Open as well. She played her way into better form during the indoor court season though.
The interesting thing about these highlights is that Steffi's forehand wasn't her biggest shot at that point. Durie was actually out-gunning her on that side. In about 1985 Graf seemed to 'decide' the forehand was going to be her big weapon and the backhand was going to be positional. Still, you can see how quick Graf was, but at that stage her backhand was actually more impressive in my opinion.
She is commenting for Eurosport if I'm not mistaken. She was great player and even better on her current job. I just love her voice and she is always spot on. She makes it fun and easy to watch even if you are a beginner.
though I like Steffi, as a teenager in the late 90s, I have to give Serena the Goat title...Serena edged incredible players, Maria, Justin, Kim, Hingis, Venus, Azarenka, Kerber, the Russian army, Li Na..
@Ilya Kuryakin just because of that single fluke, you take an entire generation of players down...& Hingis is not part of that generation. She's part of Serena's group who showed dominance over that batch as well, at some point...best examples are Capriati & Davenport, they're still in their twenties but couldn't win against the Williams sisters any longer...
@@angel91485 Neither Steffi or Serena is the GOAT. Steffi racked up a few more slams then she would have if Monica was not sidelined for 2.5 years from the stabbing and Serena's total singles titles count doesn't even come up to half of Martina's and she lost way too many early round matches than other all time greats. The GOAT is Martina, who owns the most impressive records in tennis.
First thanks for this clean video. Remarkable clarity. Second, what a wonderful glimpse of champion growing within graf. Superb tennis. Some have commented about cold hand shake. Look at steffi - who turned just 15 (few days back) and reached 4rth round, against a home player, partisan crowd, losing very close match not to mention the call at 11:57. Give her a break. Was Jo warm enough to this up and coming kid? Don’t think so.
I don't think you can blame Jo. Jo was notorious for her nerves and this match put her through real torments. She was like a tossed salad at the end. What I think the handshake does illustrate is the absolute obsessive desire to win that great players like Steffi have. We'd see similar things from young Monica Seles, Hingis and the Williams sisters over the years. As one of Tracy Austin's former coaches rather bluntly put it, "The bigger the bitch, the better they play". To steffi's credit, when interviewed many years later about her memories of Wimbledon, she was rather embarrassed about her reaction at the end of this match.
I remember in 1996 (I think at Wimbledon or the French Open), they showed a list of players with winning head to head records against Steffi. I remember Tracy Austin (who was commentating) said that she could understand the 1-0 head to heads when Steffi was starting off her career but she was super-impressed with Durie's record of 4-3. Granted Graf was very young at the time when Durie won those matches but I think another important part of it was that Durie was an effective net rusher. And Graf could sometimes have issues with players with similar tactics (e.g. Navratilova, McNeil, Sabatini in the early 90s, De Swardt).
@Ilya Kuryakin nobody is saying other players didn't have issues with Navratilova or Sabatini back in the day. They were both excellent players. Calm down.
@Ilya Kuryakin Well ironically most of the 80s top 10 were so poor I bet over half of them do lose most matches to a 16 or even 15 year old Steffi. 82-84 especialy was the worst field and top 10 in history. In that sense Durie deserves a bit of credit I guess, especialy when Durie herself was barely in the top 10 even in that awful depthless field; even though prime to prime Graf smokes her everytime probably.
@@richardross4677 1984 had Navratilova, Evert, Mandlikova, Garrison, Sukova, Kohde, Shriver, Manuela Maleeva in the top 10. All of them names tennis fan know even today. Currently we have Pegula, Garcia, Sakkari, Kasatkina, Kudermetova in the top 10. Do you think anyone will remember them in 40 years?
Something Graf was never good at, being any kind of gracious at the net come handshake when she lost. Absolute disgrace for it she was all her career and still hold the top spot that match against sabatini she wasn’t even gonna shake her hand!!, top spot obviously goes to patty schnyder another disgrace
Just completely wrong - take a look at most major losses like US open 1994, completely gracious in losing. This was a 15 year old kid who had just lost a really close match. The Sabatini game was one where there were some particularly poor line calls. Overall Steffi not much different in losing than any other player and actually better if beaten by someone who clearly played better
If you watch female players now, there aren't any kind of friendly gestures between them. They hardly mind there's no handshake allowed recently. As for Steffi: I might be wrong, but I hardly think she was angry of her opponent but rather of herself, she was sort of a maximalist.
Illustrates the kind of real obsessiveness that many of the great players have. They have a kind of tunnel vision that can make them oblivious to how they're reacting. As Chris evert said about her experiences, tennis left her (and many others) quite damaged as individuals.
Yes, that‘s why all newspapers articles included the words “class“ and/or “grace“ when Steffi retired in 1999. And why Sabatini chose Steffi to introduce her to the Hall of Fame.
Stefanie's potential was on full display here. Anyway, I love that Wimbledon was less strict when it comes to the attire here - I see shades of color here and there on their outfits.
With her style of play it was obvious she would improve massively as soon as she added some weight to her body. Her game needed athleticism (which she got in spades later!). That is different with players like Austin, Seles, Capriati. There was not as much room for improvement.
I can't give her a break on that because many teen players are friendly and gracious, myself included when I was a teen. Additionally Graf was known for her cold handshakes when she lost all throughout her career.
If memory serves wasn't this match straight after the celebration of 100 years of women's tennis at Wimbledon just before it at 2pm? That lovely old doll Kitty Godfree was there striding out charming everyone along with all the surviving Ladies Champions that could make it. Betz, Brough, Du Point, Fry Gibson, Bueno, King et al .In a TV interview, Kitty Godfree very confidently predicted that Graf would be a champion in a few years and how right she was. Great to think all the former greats got to see the next great emerging in the scene of their former triumphs. Thank you so much for posting.
It's really interesting isn't it? At this stage I don't think she was physically strong enough to run round her backhand like she later did. I wonder also whether running round her backhand was something she was coached to do as she became bigger and stronger.
@@MirjanaLfan We should not count matches against players who are younger than 15. No top player played matches at age 13/14 except Evert in 1969 (2-3 win/loss) and Steffi in 1982-84 (14-14 win/loss). So Steffi is 3-3 against Durie since her first loss against the Englishwoman was in 1983 in Filderstadt (06 36). BTW, when we discount matches at age 13/14 Steffi has the best career match winning percentage with 90.4 % ahead of Evert with 90.1 % (Serena far away with only 84.8 %).
I had never seen Durie play before. She was fast and nimble for someone so tall! I can't think of any players 6ft and up on the WTA who were that quick, except for Venus.
Exactly! It was like carrying around a frying pan. And they were with basic modern strings and most of all, a standard racquet head size which is now considered small, but if equipment was regulated, then this head size wouldn't be questioned!. Everyone had this head size, which was fair.
That would've been interesting. On this surface at that point in Graf's career and at that point in Hana's career, I would probably give the edge to Hana. But their head to head is pretty lopsided so who knows.
I just don’t understand why Steve didn’t do more topspin backhand in her career I mean you can see she had so many in her when she was 13 and 14 and then she only hit it when she played Martina so kind of
@GoTeam Only Graf fanatics don't notice her sourpuss face and handshakes and everyone else talks about it LOL To her credit Graf did get a little bit better with age though but it was quite embarrassing in the beginning, as seen here.
Fortunate for Steffi social media or the 24hrs news cycles didn't exist then. That petulant handshake was something else. Steffi was an incredibly sore loser, however she got a pass unlike the Williams sisters (inexplicably Venus who I've never seen throw a tantrum, lose her temper on court or even display a hint of petulance on court) who were always accused of not giving credit to their opponents, a ridiculous double standard since they were no better or worse than contemporaries like Hingis, Mauresmo, Dementiava.
I think the end of this match and the handshake shows how much pressure Steffi put on herself, and also how obsessive she was about winning. A lot of that came from a very strict upbringing and her father and I think at times she paid for it very badly as a human being. As Gerry Williams (who's commentating here) said years later, Steffi's obsessive perfectionism drove her on but also "made her flawed in a strange kind of way". Martina Navratilova also said many years later that Steffi was incredibly hard on herself and as a result often looked unhappy with her performance on court, unless they were absolutely outstanding. The pressure Steffi put on herself was massive, and I think it explains a lot of why she went so off the boil from 1990 until the end of 1992. It had all just taken too much out of her.
@Max E The "different reason" was Seles. The Graf era was over until a knife started it back up. Even with the knife, she still came up short. What a pity. #neverthegoat
Yes, even as at such a young age, Steffi was such a perfectionist, perhaps too much, and she did end up putting too much pressure on herself. But she knew exactly her incredible born capabilities and what she could accomplish.
@@jm7804 Seles was a tremendous benefitter from Graf's slump due to her father's nasty scandal. In fact Seles should also thanks Sabatini for beating Steffi 7 out 8 times during that period something Monica couldn't have done even in her wildest dreams.😉😉
Steffi surely did not have a "very strict upbringing". She was and is a lovely and very authentic person. Never faked emotions. Exactly that made her so popular especially in Europe and Asia. Watch her interviews and press conferences.
@@carrerau7138 ?? it's very much on record how strict Steffi's upbringing was. That's nothing to do with her being a nice person or not. Plenty of people have strict childhoods and are nice. Steffi has talked about her childhood herself. One of the family friends also talked about how Peter Graf would beat Steffi.
Even a better volleyer than Navratilova. People misunderstand that McEnroe and Navratilova as the best volleyer in 80s. They're not serve & volleyer actually. They're all rounders. McEnroe and Navratilova are both the excellent groundstrokers, too but other volleyers were much better than them in 80s. Just that they won so many matches, that means they're great volleyers.
I think Billie Jean King is the best volleyer, but she was active before I started watching Tennis. In the men's game, probably Edberg. Who do you think we're the best?
One of 13 players to have a winning H2H record against Graf...which I think is probably the most losing records of any top 10 GOAT contenders. Stay tuned for a boatload of excuses from obsessed Graf fans....
Right on schedule the Graf excuse train comes rolling into town....whoo whoo. She's too young, she's too old, she was injured, blah blah blah. I don't care if she was 14 or 40, she was a professional tennis player and she owns that losing record. End of story. You don't hear Evert or Capriati whining about matches they lost when they were 14.
Jo herself herself said that she knew early on when she played Steffi that she would be a great player. I think head to heads are more career affirming when you are talking about players on the same level. I love Jo and as a Brit supported her right until her last match at Wimbledon. However, whilst it’s a great tit bit of info, it doesn’t really mean the same as Steffi’s head to heads against Sabatini, Navratilova etc.
@@Menexpert I've never seen any group of fans make more excuses for their idol than Graf's. It's astonishing. As I stated... let the excuses come a rollin' in. Right on time!
