Tuesday April 13th 2021
First tournament victory 35 years ago
When 16-year-old Steffi Graf shocked the world
“Steffi is very tired”, complains her father before the final in South Caronlina: On April 13, 1986, 16-year-old Steffi Graf faces 17-time Grand Slam winner Chris Evert. In six previous duels, she could not win a single set against them. But then the breakthrough comes.
By April 13, 1986, the tennis world had heard a lot from this 16-year-old German with the cracking forehand. Steffi Graf had made her professional debut four years earlier, entered the Grand Slam stage in Australia three years earlier, and reached her first final two years earlier in Filderstadt. The girl from Brühl’s first tournament victory was only a matter of time.
On this Sunday in Hilton Head Island in the US state of South Carolina, not even father Peter Graf believed in his daughter: “Steffi is very tired, I don’t think there will be anything today.” After all, on the other side of the net there was none other than Chris Evert-Lloyd, 17-time Grand Slam winner and so far in six duels with Graf without losing a set.
“Didn’t think it would happen so soon”
But Steffi, who actually preferred to be called Stefanie, whistled about the predictions and later gave the record with satisfaction: “I think I have disproved all of my surroundings.” With 6: 4, 7: 5 she beat the world number two from the USA, the 5500 spectators in the Harbor Town Raquet Club were amazed, and Evert-Lloyd, 15 years older than Graf, was also a bit stunned. “I knew she was going to hit me one day, of course, but I didn’t think it was going to happen anytime soon,” she said. Graf remained humble even in triumph: “I don’t know if I can beat her next time. She’ll be harder to beat. But today was my day.” Even a 4-0 deficit in the second set turned the German. It should have been her breakthrough.
Six duels followed, in only one of which Graf should lose a sentence, always beating Evert, who from 1987 only had her maiden name after the divorce from the British tennis player John Lloyd. Graf continued her triumph after the tournament in Hilton Head Island, winning three more tournaments, including the German Open in Berlin in the final against the great Martina Navratilova.
From now on Graf could not be stopped, even if it took almost a year to the first of a total of 22 Grand Slam titles, which she won at the French Open in Paris in the final against Navratilova. By 1999 she had triumphed 107 times on the professional tour and was at the top of the world rankings for 377 weeks.
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