Martina had to face grass court greats like King, Goolagong, Wade, Mandlikova, etc. who all won grand slam titles on grass using their grass court skills.
Sorry but while I enjoy reading alot of your posts, I have to laugh at that summary. Martina won her first Wimbledon when Wade was already 33 years old and Billie Jean King was 34 years old. Those two women were older then Navratilova was when Graf won her first and second Wimbledons by beating Navratilova herself. When Navratilova denied a developing Graf the 87 Wimbledon title she was only 30, and her first year of dominance had only begun 5 years before that. Goolagong was not too old in 1978 (27) but she was never anywhere near the same player she had been in 1971-1976 after the maternity leave she took in 1977, despite her shock last hurrah Wimbledon title in 1980. Graf did not dominate Wimbledon during Martina's prime, but she still faced Navratilova in a more real way then Martina had to face any King, Goolagong, Wade, as King and Wade were even older, and Martina by 1987-1989 was still playing a heck of alot better then any of those women were by even 1978-1979. Heck Seles was even more of an opponent Graf faced at Wimbledon, then Wade or King for Martina at Wimbledon. Graf atleast crushed Seles once in her prime at Wimbledon, while Martina did not even play King at Wimbledon until a quarterfinal when King was 36 years old.
Mandlikova is more talented then Sanchez Vicario, Sabatini, or Novotna and her game is much more suited to grass then Sanchez Vicario or even Sabatini. However she is also far less consistent a player in her prime then any of those three were, and many times she would take herself out in early rounds to relative nobodies with some random abysmal performance before she even faced Martina. Atleast Sabatini and Novotna were very consistent making semis or better of every Wimbledon (or quarters only if they were unlucky to be drawn into Steffi's quarter) to challenge people like Graf during their primes.
I still would say Martina had tougher top competition at Wimbledon by virtue of Evert and Mandlikova. However I think Graf had more depth of competition since I think old Navratilova, Sanchez, Novotna, Sabatini, were all stronger opponents on any surface then any of Shriver, Jordan, Durie, etc....
Neither had great overall competition at all but as far as top end competition I agree Martina had a bit more, but it certainly was not because King, Wade, and Goolagong were real contemporaries of her at Wimbledon, they clearly were not.
To the thread question, yes Graf would have won atleast 10 Wimbledons had she gone down with serious injuries early in 97. She would have easily won in both 97 and 98, and would have probably won in 99 too. However injuries are part of the game and they are just something players have to do their best to avoid and hope for a bit of luck.
