Word: steffi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...first time in Wimbledon history the defending female champion has been ousted in the first round of play, as American Lori McNeil, ranked No. 22, bested No. 1 Steffi Graf. Graf was favored to recapture the title for a second consecutive year, but at Centre Court, McNeil battled whipping winds and Graf's legendary forehand to quash the six-time Wimbledon champ. No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is now expected to take home the top prize, but some are still betting on 10-time winner Martina Navratilova, who is competing on the grass courts of Wimbledon for the final time...
NATURALIZED. MONICA SELES, 20, professional tennis player; as a U.S. citizen; in Miami, Florida. The highly regarded Yugoslavia-born athlete, who toppled from her No. 1 ranking after a knife attack by a crazed Steffi Graf fan, called her citizenship date "a happy day for me. I am proud to be a United States citizen, and look forward to continuing our lives here...
...relative openness and civility. The TV pictures of Kerrigan weeping and grimacing in pain were eerily familiar. Only last April, there were similar shots of tennis whiz Monica Seles, who was stabbed in the back in the midst of a match by a virulent fan of her rival, Steffi Graf. Seles has yet to return to competition. Her attacker was tried and freed on probation...
...Balkan politics. Seles was born in Serbia, and there have been threats against her in the past. But the issue turned out to be top-level tennis, not war. "He did not want to kill Monica Seles," said a police spokesman. "He only wanted to injure her so Steffi Graf could become No. 1 again." The assailant, a 38-year-old German lathe operator, nearly succeeded. His 4.5-in. boning knife barely missed Seles' spinal cord, and it put a 1/2- in.-deep cut in the muscles of her upper back. Doctors at a nearby hospital closed the wound...
...ones: one of the charms of the Olympics is that it plays tricks with perspective, so that ordinary Joes become superstars, and superstars can seem like ordinary Joes. There was Magic Johnson, his smile as broad as an unbalanced beam, taking in the women's gymnastics, and there was Steffi Graf, looking unusually relaxed (before her loss in the final to Jennifer Capriati) and confessing that she would have liked to try the 100 m. There was Jim Courier, speaking with touching sincerity of the joys of living in a tiny room without air conditioning. "I wouldn't miss staying...