In the same year, 19-year-old Steffi Graf won the Olympic gold medal and all four Grand Slams. To date, she is the only tennis player to have done so.
Many people consider the legendary German tennis player Steffi Graf to be among the greatest in history. During her 16-year professional career, she won 22 Grand Slam championships, which is the second-most since the Open Era began in 1968 (after Serena Williams, 23), and the third-most in history (after Margaret Court, 24). The longest streak of any player, male or female, at No. 1 in the world rankings was 377 weeks, which Steffi Graf achieved. Her 107 career titles rank third in history, behind only Martina Navratilova (167) and Chris Evert (157).
But one accomplishment in particular from her career sticks out. Steffi Graf, who was 19 at the time, won the 1988 Grand Slam and is still the only male or female tennis player in history to do so. A player who wins the Olympic gold medal in addition to all four Grand Slams—the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open—in a single year is referred to as a “Golden Slam” by the media. It is as difficult as it seems and calls for a lot of work and flexibility on the part of a tennis player to succeed on clay courts, grass courts, and hard courts all within months of one another.
Steffi Graf, on the other hand, possessed all of those attributes in spades—she is the only player in history to have won all four Grand Slams.
Steffi Graf would also claim a second Olympic medal – a bronze in the women’s doubles with Claudia Kohde-Klisch – after the pair lost the semi-finals to Czech Republic’s Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova.
German legend Steffi Graf is widely recognised as one of the best tennis players in history.
