Steffi Graf, 29 years old and playing in her first Grand Slam
event in more than a year, lacked the steely will that pushed
her to seven All-England titles and innumerable comebacks. Last
Friday, after looking uncharacteristically nervous in a
third-round loss to Natasha Zvereva, a player she'd beaten 17
straight times, Graf said she intended to finish out the year
but could not guarantee that she would be back at Wimbledon next
June.
"I'm just going with the flow a little," she said, reflecting on
the back and knee injuries that had largely sidelined her since
June 1997. "I tried harder to get in shape again, and it was
very difficult. What happens next? I honestly don't know. I'll
try to play, and we'll see."
Physically, Graf feels fine. But at this Wimbledon she
complained often to chair umpires, cried at the press conference
after her first match and seemed not to care when she lost—all
un-Graf-like behavior. She will not just muddle through. One
more injury will mean the end of her career. "That's going to be
it," she said. "I've had enough."
The most telling sign that she's on her way out? The constant
sniping by Martina Hingis that Graf is old and past her time
barely elicited a raised eyebrow from the world's former No. 1
player. "Sometimes I do think those remarks are disrespectful,"
Graf said, "but they don't matter to me."
Issue date: July 6, 1998
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