8. Steffi Graf, Tennis Grand Slam, 1988
Embarrassing confessions coming up, gang: As a kid, maybe 7 or 8, I was in love with Steffi Graf. How in love? So in love that I would borrow my mother's tennis racket, retreat to my room, and pretend Steffi Graf and I were playing mixed doubles at a major. We would always be up against a team of two kids I didn't like from school (yes, there were some authenticity issues with this fantasy: How did two kids ever make the Grand Slam final?), and we'd always win in dramatic fashion. Was there romantic tension between Steffi and me, you ask? Oh hell yes. It was palpable. You could cut it with a knife. And man, you can bet the girls from school were looking on in envy. Ol' Shane just took on a new light in their eyes. Those were good times, and I was sad to see that age of imagination end when I turned 22.
Anyway, I was slightly too young to know what was happening when she won the calendar grand slam in '88 — all four majors in a single year. In the end, I think our mixed-doubles partnership could only have slowed her down.
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/2983/the-ten-greatest-grand-slams-in-history
