1988 Steffi Graf's Golden Slam | Together Forever | Rick Astley

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"Steffi Graf had taken part at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 when tennis made its Olympic return as a demonstration sport, 60 years after it was dropped from the programme. At age 15, she claimed a prestigious and symbolic victory in the final against Yugoslavia’s Sabrina Goleš on the courts at the University of California, Los Angeles, winning 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.

In 1987, Graf’s career truly took off: she won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, beating world no. 1 Martina Navratilova, and reached two finals, at Wimbledon and the US Open, losing out to Navratilova in both. American star Chris Evert, meanwhile, failed to take a set off Graf in three matches. The German, born on 14 June 1969 in Mannheim, was already showing the qualities that would lead to her being world no. 1 for 186 consecutive weeks from 17 August 1987: incredible footwork, a devastating forehand, an effective backhand and a powerful, reliable serve – an all-round game that proved successful on every surface.

Steffi Graf was just shy of 19 years old, when she began the 1988 season. On 24 January 1988, Graf took on Evert in the final of the Australian Open in Melbourne. She did not drop a set en route to the final, defeating Czechoslovakia’s Hana Mandlíková in the quarter-final and compatriot Claudia Kohde-Kilsch in the semi-final. In the final, Evert was completely overwhelmed in the first set, losing 6-1. The American then took her opponent to a tie-break in the second set, eventually going down 7-3. First Grand Slam victory of the year for Graf: 6-1, 7-6.

Five months later, the world no. 1 was in peerless form on the clay courts of Roland Garros. Once again, Graf reached the final without conceding a single set. And on 5 June 1988, the match for the championship against the Soviet Union’s Natasha Zvereva lasted a mere 34 minutes, with Zverera mustering only a few points in a 6-0, 6-0 whitewash.

Next up were the grass courts of Wimbledon, where Graf was never in any danger until the final, when she came up against six-time defending champion Navratilova, unbeaten since 1981. The 19-year-old Graf lost the first set 7-5 before getting the measure of her rival and fighting back to take the next two sets 6-2, 6-1.

Then on 11 September in New York, Graf became the first woman to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year since Australia’s Margaret Smith-Court in 1970. Yet again, she dropped a minimal number of games at Flushing Meadows and took full advantage of Evert’s forfeit in the semi-final. Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini reached her first ever final, but Graf secured a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory.

'The experience of ’88 in Seoul probably stands out, just coming from the US Open where I won the Grand Slam. I had one day to turn around, get home, change and get on the flight to Seoul. And stepping on the plane there was a big group of German athletes on it. It just felt something special that I was going to,' recalls Graf. She was in hard-court action in the capital of the Republic of Korea on 20 September and breezed through the rounds – conceding just one set, against the Soviet Union’s Larissa Savchenko in the quarter-final – before coming up against Sabatini once again in the gold-medal match on 1 October 1988.

Less than three weeks after beating her in New York, Graf inflicted yet another defeat on the Argentinean, giving her no chance with an imposing 6-3, 6-3 victory. 'It was important for me to win here,' she said afterwards. She was absolutely right – the term 'Golden Slam' was born at that exact moment. Four Grand Slam wins and an Olympic title in the same year – a feat that no male or female player had achieved before or has done since.

Her glittering career saw her occupy the world no.1 spot for a total of 377 weeks (a record), including a run of 186 consecutive weeks between August 1987 and March 1991. She ended the 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995, and 1996 tennis seasons as the world’s top-ranked player. In total, she won 22 Grand Slam titles: the Australian Open four times, Roland Garros six times, Wimbledon seven times and the US Open five times. Her rivalries with Yugoslavia’s Monica Seles and Spain’s Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the 1980s and 1990s have gone down in tennis folklore.

Graf remains one of the greatest champions in the history of her sport. She always said: 'I never look back, I look forward,' but she also said: 'You can't measure success if you have never failed. My father taught me that if you really do want to reach your goals, you can't spend any time worrying about whether you're going to win or lose. Focus only on getting better.'"

(https://www.olympic.org/news/steffi-g...)