Davenport then reached the semifinals of the tournament in Indian Wells, California, where she lost to Steffi Graf.

Davenport then lost in the Indian Wells, California, final to Hingis, after defeating Steffi Graf, and in the Miami, she fell in the quarterfinals to Anna Kournikova.

Davenport then won Zürich and lost to 17th-ranked Graf in Philadelphia despite attaining the no.

Graf then lost to Navratilova 7 – 5, 6 – 3 in the Wimbledon final, her first loss of the year.

Graf did not lose a set during the tournament and lost a total of only 29 games.

Graf lost twice to Gabriela Sabatini during the spring, once on hardcourts in Boca Raton, Florida, and once on clay at Amelia Island, Florida.

In the Boca Raton final, Graf lost the only set she conceded to Chris Evert in their final seven matches.

In the subsequent Amelia Island final on clay, Graf lost her first match of the year to Sabatini but returned to European clay with easy victories at Hamburg and Berlin.

Graf served for the match at 5 – 3 in the third set but lost the game at love and won only three more points in the match.

Graf again lost to Monica Seles in the final of the French Open 7 – 6, 6 – 4.

At Wimbledon, Graf lost in the semifinals to Zina Garrison, who with this victory broke Graf's string of 13 consecutive Grand Slam finals.

After victories in Montreal and San Diego, Graf reached the US Open final, where she lost in straight sets to Sabatini.

Graf won four indoor tournaments after the US Open, but lost again to Sabatini in a Virginia Slims Championships semifinal.

Graf briefly regained the top ranking after winning at Wimbledon but lost it again after her loss to Navratilova at the US Open.

Graf lost an Australian Open quarterfinal to Jana Novotná, the first time she did not reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament since the 1986 French Open.

Following her tournament victory in Berlin, Graf suffered one of the worst defeats of her career in a French Open semifinal where she won only two games against Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and lost her first 6 – 0 set since 1984.

At the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Graf lost to Jennifer Capriati in the final and claimed the silver medal.

She then won her eighth German Open, but there were signs that her form was worsening as she almost lost to Julie Halard in a quarterfinal. Back-to-back losses followed ; Graf lost to Mary Pierce in a French Open semifinal, 6 – 2, 6 – 2, and followed that with a first-round straight-sets loss at Wimbledon to Lori McNeil, her first loss in a first round Grand Slam tournament in ten years.

In 1997 Graf lost in the 4th round of Australian open in straight sets 2 – 6, 5 – 7 to Amanda Coetzer.

In Indian Wells, 1999 Graf lost to Serena Williams 3 – 6, 6 – 3, 5 – 7.

Graf lost her singles match to Elena Likhovtseva 5 – 4.

Williams started the 1999 tour in Australia, where she lost to World No. 10 Steffi Graf in the quarterfinals of the Medibank International in Sydney and World No. 1 Davenport in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

At the 1999 Wimbledon Championships, Williams defeated World No. 17 Anna Kournikova in the fourth round to reach the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year, where she lost to eventual runner-up Graf.

She reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open ( first time from Japan in over two decades beating Conchita Martinez in the quarter final, lost to Steffi Graf ) and the Virginia Slims Championships ( lost to Sabatini ).

In 1990 and 1991, Martínez won a further six titles and again reached the quarterfinals at the French Open both years ( losing to Graf in 1990 and Monica Seles in 1991 ).

In 1993, Martínez became the first Spanish woman since Lilí de Álvarez in 1928 to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon, where she lost to Graf 7 – 6, 6 – 3.

Martínez beat Graf for the first & only time in her career, at a tournament in Philadelphia in the final.

The damage to Graf Spee, although not extensive, was critical ; her fuel system was crippled.

** Steffi Graf defeats Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the longest ever women's final at the French Open, to win her 19th Grand Slam title.

Raeder's order that intended to avoid a repeat of the scuttling of the Admiral Graf von Spee read: " The German warship and her crew are to fight with their strength to the last shell, until they win or they go down with their flag flying.

During the summer, Davenport won the tournament in Los Angeles, defeating Graf for the first time in her career in the semifinals, before defeating Anke Huber in the final.

Navratilova herself has included Graf on her list of great players.

Steffi Graf was introduced to tennis by her father Peter Graf, a car and insurance salesman and aspiring tennis coach, who taught his three-year-old daughter how to swing a wooden racket in the family's living room.

Graf played in her first professional tournament in October 1982 at Stuttgart, Germany.

At the start of her first full professional year in 1983, the 13-year-old Graf was ranked World No. 124.

Working with her father and then-coach Pavel Složil, Graf typically practised for up to four hours a day, often heading straight from airports to practice courts.

This narrow focus meant that Graf, already shy and retiring by nature, made few friends on the tour in her early years, but it led to a steady improvement in her play.

On 13 April 1986, Graf won her first WTA tournament and beat Evert for the first time in the final of the Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

) Graf then won her next three tournaments at Amelia Island, Charleston, and Berlin, culminating in a 6 – 2, 6 – 3 defeat of Navratilova in the final of the latter.

Graf, however, won the tournament in San Antonio, Texas and retained her title in Miami, where she once again defeated Evert in the final.

At the French Open, Graf successfully defended her title by defeating Natasha Zvereva 6 – 0, 6 – 0 in a 32-minute final.

Graf also won her only Grand Slam doubles title that year — at Wimbledon partnering Sabatini — and picked up a women's doubles Olympic bronze medal.

At the year-ending Virginia Slims Championships, Graf – hampered by illness – was upset by Pam Shriver, only her third loss of the year.

And the year began as expected, with Graf extending her Grand Slam winning streak to five events at the Australian Open, defeating Helena Suková in the final.

Graf followed this with easy victories in her next four tournaments at Washington, D. C., San Antonio, Texas, Boca Raton, Florida, and Hilton Head, South Carolina.

In her semifinal match at the US Open, Graf defeated Sabatini 3 – 6, 6 – 4, 6 – 2.

In the final, Navratilova led 6 – 3, 4 – 2 before Graf rallied to win 3 – 6, 7 – 5, 6 – 1 for her third Grand Slam singles title of the year.

Victories at Zürich and Brighton preceded the Virginia Slims Championships, where Graf cemented her top-ranked status by beating Navratilova in the final 6 – 4, 7 – 5, 2 – 6, 6 – 2.