TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/caps/88/88capenv.8

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                                                                                September 19, 1988

SPORT

For Steffi Graf, an Open Slam Dunk


The West German teenager captures the rarest of laurels


The accomplishment was very nearly nonpareil. To put the grand
slam of tennis in perspective, it is far rarer than either
baseball's (16) or horse racing's (eleven) triple crowns. The
recent demigods, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Billie
Jean King among them have 47 major tournament victories, but
none managed that perfect dominance over their rivals and the
calendar. Only four other tennis players, male and female,
belong in this most exclusive of tennis clubs:  Don Budge
(1938), Maureen Connolly (1953), Rod Laver (1962 and 1969) and
Margaret Court (1970). On Saturday Steffi Graf of West Germany
joined that short list, after momentary jitters, with a 6-3,
3-6, 6-1 win over Argentine Gabriela Sabatini in the U.S. Open
final.

Graf, 19, secured he place on the plaque with a style drawn more
from Clausewitz than Connolly or Court. She dropped only two
sets in the course of her conquest. In the first act, the
Australian Open in January, she sent Evert down under 6-1, 7-6.
In Paris in June, she pulverized Soviet Natalia Zvereva 6-0,
6-0, the only double bagel ever in a French Open singles final
and the first in a grand-slam final since 1911. The walkover
took all of 32 minutes on the soft, molasses-slow red clay.
During the award ceremony, when the centurion had metamorphosed
back into an unaffected teenage millionaire, Graf meekly
apologized to the crowd, "I'm very sorry it was so fast."

Her first test came in July during the Wimbledon finals.
Navratilova, the woman Graf dethroned as No. 1, sees the All
England Club's greenswards as a personal fief, and she won the
opening set. For a moment it looked as though the 31-year-old
NAvratilova would gain a distinction long coveted--a record
ninth Wimbledon singles title, one more than Helen Wills Moody
won back in the 1920s and '30s. Martina punched the air in
anticipation. But silently the skies turned from summer sun to
North Atlantic squall, and Steffi simply and unceremoniously
broke the veteran's serve again and again. When the carpet
bombing from Graf's forehand was over, the score was 5-7, 6-2,
6-1, and a tournament official had to show the slightly abashed
young woman how to hold the trophy for the crowd.

By the time the U.S. Open came around, scarcely anyone doubted
that Graf would romp. Her task was made even easier when
Navratilova exited prematurely in the quarterfinals after a
fabulous seesawing bout, probably the fort-night's best, with
Zina Garrison. It was a particularly melancholy end for
Navratilova, who during 1983-84 won six consecutive majors and
contends that she too has won the slam. Few, however, agree:
the slam, like all classic stories, must adhere to certain
unities of time and space, the calendar year being one of them.

Unconcerned by such questions, Graf blew through challenge of
a semifinal appointment with Evert evaporated when the American
caught a stomach flu and had to default. Then came the meeting
with Sabatini, who had beaten Graf twice so far this year--the
only person to do so. But not this time. Graf was uneven--"In
the second set, I was not so tough"--but finished
overwhelmingly. When the Open was finally closed, Graf had lost
just 23 games in six matches. That was all the more restful for
Graf, who is off to Seoul to collect a gold medal in the newly
reinstated Olympic event of tennis, a victory that would
complete an even grander slam.

--By Daniel Benjamin