Steffi the only player (male or female) to have defended all the majors
 

Not only she is the only one, but she's defended all of them twice!
Australian Open : 89, 90
Roland Garros, 88, 96
Wimbledon : 89, 92
US Open : 89, 96

Court has never defended a Wimbledon title.

Emerson has never defended an Australian Open or a Wimbledon title.

Laver has never defended an Australian Open, a French Open or a US Open title.

Navratilova has never defended an Australian Open or a French Open title.

Evert has never defended an Australian Open or a Wimbledon title.

There you have it, undeniable evidence Steffi was a fairly decent tennis player!

lol

I think in almost 5 years here, it is my very first thread about Steffi. I just though this was an awesome accomplishment.

I think Lenglen, Wills Moody, Connolly and Laver would have done it no doubt. They were so dominant. But for different reasons, they were not able to. (And I know that two of them doesn't even have the career slam...)

Yes I would think Steffi was fairly decent. :)

She had a bit of potential there. lol.

Stats like that are why lately I have been leaning towards co-ranking Steffi and Navratilova as #1 on my GOAT list. Both have things that are just insanely scary stats wise.

Steffi could have become the greatest tennis player ever but a number of flaws prevent her ranking over the likes of Navratilova, Court, or Evert:

-Her major slump from 1990-1994, right in the middle of what should have been her prime. Resulting in only 1 slam win in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, even with only Seles in 91 and 92 only as real competition. 1993 she won 3 slams but only due to horrendous chokes by Fernandez in the French Open final and Novotna in the Wimbledon final, so it might as well have been only 1 that year too. She wasnt really in form even in 1993, losing multiple times to Sanchez early in the year, being spanked by Seles in the Australian Open final, getting spanked by Conchita Martinez on fast carpet late that year, losing a set to a Maleeva sister in the U.S Open semis, and even losing to Nicole Provis-Bradkte late that year. 1988, 1989, 1995, and 1996 were her only great years of tennis.

-Her failure to gain the record at any of the 4 slam venues, or the overall slam record. That she failed to do this despite the advantage of the Seles stabbing is even more telling a mark against her.

-Worst of all her 4-1 record vs Navratilova at the U.S Open. Navratilova was out of her prime for 3 or 4 of those 5 matches, and Steffi in hers for 3 or 4 of the 5, making it an even more glaring flaw. This is also their most neutral meeting ground, carpet and grass favoring Martina, rebound ace and clay favoring Steffi.

-Other than Seles in 91 and 92 facing no all time great in their primes when winning her slams from 1987 to 1999.

How many more ''little slam'' Steffi had to make really? :confused: 1 Golden Slam + 4 ''litlle slams'' aren't enough already?

Martina also won 60 more tournaments than Steffi in her career. I think it's 167 to 107. That's a lot more tournaments won by Navratilova.

Also it was incredibly impressive that Steffi was able to defend each of the 4 slams at her first attempt.

Steffi has stayed in the top 2 in WTA ranking from march 1987 to june 1997. Even with so many slumps, she was able to be in the top or in the bottom of the draw for more than a decade.

Navratilova : 4 USO titles
Graf : 5 USO titles

What would you rather have? The H2H or one more title? And I am well aware that Martina lost a couple of very close finals & Austin and Mandlikova but she did lost them so who cares. Graf lost a close one too in '94.

And Court won like 190 didn't she?

I like Navratilova a lot but she didn't face the strongest competition either. When she was peaking in 1982, Evert has already been on the tour for a very long time. The great Chrissy was already beating the great Margaret during her Grand Slam season in 1970. 13 seasons later, Chris had to be at her absolute best still, otherwise, who was there to challenge Martina? :confused:

That is pretty impressive.

Evert arguably came close to also defending all 4 but was stopped by Martina at the Austrailian in 1985 (after winning it in '82 and '84, she skipped in '83) and by Martina again at Wimbledon in 1982 I think? Its funny how Evert made like 34 slam finals(more than Martina, Court, and Steffi I think) and yet she never won consecutively at all 4.

Yeah, I think Steffi has to be regarded as the greatest woman tennis player of all time. But that's just my opinion.

How much you win is largely due to your competition though. The fact Martina aged 29 or older for 4 of their 5 meetings, with Steffi aged 17 to 22 and World #1 in 3 of those, went 4-1 vs Steffi at the U.S Open, and even choked a big lead in the one loss, shows that Martina >>> Steffi in pure ability on their most neutral surface, and had they been in their primes together Martina would have been much stronger on even a neutral court.

look at the facts and figures. all these arguments about strong/weak competition or past her prime/not yet in her prime are personal opinions

I don´t think we can have toughest foursomes for ladies play ( Open era) than:

early 70´s:King,Court,Goolagong and Evert - with Wade and Richey following-

early 80´s: Navratilova,Evert,Mandlikova and Austin - jaeger and Shriver right behind-

early 90´s:Seles,Graf,Sabatini and Sanchez(clay)/Navi(fast)

late 90´s: Seles,Graf,Hingis,Davenport - Williams and Kournikova next-

Kournikova one of the strongest women of the late 90's? Sorry but absolutely not, she never even won a singles title. She does not deserve to be put in the same breath as those other women. Novotna would be a much better choice. To say Kournikova is just ridiculous.

She is the only person in recent history (perhaps the open era too) to do the golden calendar slam. That is something we won't see this year, and haven't seen since 1988!