Word: graf
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Among the many piques and volleys of tennis, this year's Wimbledon had a distinct feeling of passage. For the first time since Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert doubled in love 14 years ago, two fresh champions emerged, one for the ages. The torch that Steffi Graf has been tugging at for more than a year, but that Martina Navratilova managed to hold fast last summer at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, was finally handed over gracefully, emphatically and a little sadly...
Hoping at 31 for a ninth Wimbledon singles title, the one that would leave Helen Wills Moody and everyone else behind, Navratilova warmed up for Graf with a 41st victory over Evert in their 78-match marathon. "These two are ranked 10 and 11 now," observed the former U.S. Davis Cupper Gene Scott. "Steffi is 1 through...
...first time in almost 20 years without the sure knowledge that she would return. "I don't know; we'll see," she said. During their tight semifinal, which may have turned on a bad call, Evert sensed a vulnerability in her old adversary that made her unhesitatingly pick Graf. "Martina's body language looks confident, but I can tell...
Without a rain delay, it could scarcely be Wimbledon. But the pause in the third set with Graf on a rampage only stressed the powerful points, backhands and back of the hands that Steffi was making in rising up from her bland opening set to take nine of ten games going away. Tellingly, during the recess, Navratilova sought hurried treatment for a complaining leg muscle while Graf sprawled like a teenager in front of the TV. "Bodies warm up easier at 19 than they do at 31," sighed the woman finished...
...thing for her," said Graf. "She really had felt that she could win it. This is her special tournament." But Steffi never gave much thought to losing. "It would not be the way to go to the Grand Slam," she said. Australia, France and England are in hand, and only next month's American Open remains, in the first sweeping quest on either the men's or women's side since Margaret Court's in 1970. A "special player," a "super player," Martina called Graf, and some say she may soon be as strapped for an opponent as Mike Tyson...