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
Steffi Graf singles finals. Graf is regarded by many to be the greatest female tennis player of all time. Navratilova included Graf on her list of great players. In 1999 Billie Jean King said, "Steffi is definitely the greatest women's tennis player of all time." In December 1999, Graf was named the greatest female tennis player of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by the Associated Press. Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book "The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century", named her as the best female player of the 20th century. In March 2012, Tennis Channel picked