Graf–Seles rivalry Graf–Seles rivalry Steffi Graf and Monica Seles are retired professional tennis players who between 1989 and 1999 engaged in a rivalry for the best female tennis player. They competed in 15 matches. Seles, a left-handed player, demonstrated powerful and precise hitting from the baseline on both wings. Graf, in contrast, had a formidable forehand, in addition to her penetrating serve, but mostly sliced her backhand. Their head to head rivalry was especially notable for Graf being dominant on tour in Seles' first years and then Seles being dominant at the grand slams winning three of the four matches they played
Grand Slam (tennis) is all about is like a baseball player believing that he 'hit for the cycle' after slugging a single, double and triple in the first game of a doubleheader and a home run in his first time at bat in the second game." Despite seeming clarity from the ITF, some journalists suggested that the sport's organizing body had turned its back on history and changed the "rules" of tennis by redefining a Grand Slam. Such confusion continued for years. For instance, when Steffi Graf completed the Grand Slam in 1988, George Vecsey wrote, "Even the International Tennis Federation, which should