To say that time flies is an understatement, already been two weeks from the last post but doesn't feel that way. Nothing major for news front and Steffi is doing a great job of keeping in touch with her fans, great to hear from her, be it tennis or her life and thankful for the social media to make it happen.
Reading this week's mailbag from Jon Wertheim and this particular statement caught my attention as he considers Serena Williams to be the greatest on the female side:
"Anyway, all that said, I'm not sure the Serena comparison is relevant. Serena might be the standard on the women's Tour. But on the ATP, the top players don't play simply when the urge strikes. They don't take off entire chunks of the year. They don't bail midway through events with dubious injuries and then show up at celebrity weddings a few days later.
She is not the standard for Djokovic. Federer and Nadal are".
Don't remember anyone saying this about Steffi Graf when she was playing tennis. In fact, she was considered superior to top men's players of her time when it came to commitment to tennis.
And that's why have hard time accepting Serena Williams as the greatest ever, greatest in her era for sure but not the greatest ever. Winning day in and day out regradless of surface or whether it is a major or a minor is a tough standard to surpass year in and year out, the way Steffi Graf did or Navratilova or Seles or Evert or Court did.
And one of the reasons why Sabatini was unfortunate not be world No:1 despite winning a GS whereas we have so many slamless no:1s in Serena's era.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/jon_wertheim/11/30/djokovic-mailbag/index.html?sct=tn_wr_a1
In that context, here is what Richard Williams said about Steffi back in 99:
"Actually, Steffi Graf is my favorite player on the Tour, and Venus and Serena would be my second and third. I admire Steffi Graf more than any player. The reason I admire Steffi Graf so much, when other players was not there, Steffi Graf was there. Steffi Graf, as far as I'm concerned, took the WTA, the Tour, and everyone else on her shoulder and did a marvelous job. I wanted to see my daughter beat Steffi Graf, but I guess I was hoping Steffi would win, too. But in reality, I really wanted to see Venus win. Steffi Graf is my favorite player".
http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=11439
A NZ tennis umpire on Steffi Graf:
"She was an approachable, very down to earth person. Someone who took the time to talk to me and ask what I was doing, where I was going."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/tennis/6051639/John-McEnroe-does-not-daunt-top-NZ-umpire
Steffi makes it to this list of strangest tennis habits but wondering if anyone else played with a ball in the other hand. In this day of double handed backhand being the norm, doubt any player in the current generation can play with a ball in the other hand and Steffi still does it (she was still holding a tennis ball in the other hand in the videos posted by her this year).
http://www.tenniscrack.com/2011/12/strangest-tennis-habits.html
Wow, looks like someone caught this moment on camera. This is dated Jun 15th 1999, one day after Steffi's B'day, at Wimbledon and for people who read Andre's book, I need not say anything more, the smile of Andre's face says it all. (if Speilberg ever needs any help for recreating the scenes, I am just a 'blog' away).
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/wimbeldon-great-britain-andre-agassi-with-steffi-graf-news-photo/51067716
Here is one more from the same day with Heidi Graf in the background.
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/wimbeldon-great-britain-andre-agassi-with-steffi-graf-news-photo/51067714
Have to watch the end where Andre compares his titles to that of his wife's:
http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/tennis-legend-andre-agassi-meets-his-fans-in-palo/vFN8D/
