No player had ever recorded a Golden Slam before Steffi Graf did it in 1988. But then again, the feat was not even possible before 1988. The French championships were closed to non-nationals until 1925, and tennis had left the Olympics in 1924.
The concept of Olympic tennis was so novel a quarter-century ago that not even Graf contemplated the idea of adding to the traditional calendar-year Slam she had just recorded. “Now I’ve done it,” she said after winning the U.S. Open. “There’s no more pressure. Now there’s nothing else people can tell me I have to do.”
But told to or not, the 19-year-old German added a gold medal to her stellar season a couple of weeks later. The achievement was soon labeled the “Golden Grand Slam.”
It was the culmination of a journey that had taken almost nine months and circled the globe, starting in January with the Australian Open. It is unlikely that Graf held such high ambitions for her season when she arrived in Melbourne two weeks before the tournament began. Though she had ended 1987 as the world No. 1, rivals like Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, and her contemporary Gabriela Sabatini were expected to challenge her severely during the upcoming season.
Her preparation was, as usual, painstaking. In 1988, more than any other year, players had reason to head Down Under early. The Australian Open, following the example the U.S. Open had set a decade earlier, had moved to a public facility and installed a rubberized hardcourt surface. The main stadium also featured an innovative retractable roof, creating the prospect that players would have to play both outdoors and indoors over the course of a single match.
Graf practiced assiduously on the new Rebound Ace surface, getting accustomed to its speed, its bounce, and its stickiness in the heat. She also made time to practice with the roof closed, and that experience proved invaluable when rain interrupted the women’s final after three games. After play resumed with the roof closed, Graf won eight straight games as her opponent, Evert, struggled to adjust to the new conditions.
Evert eventually recovered her form but could not claw her way back, losing in straight sets. After the match, the runner-up fared little better in her prediction for the rest of the season, saying, “It’s going to an interesting year. I don’t thing it’s going to be dominated by any one player.”
Graf soon proved her wrong. A few months later, the German blew through the French Open, capping her fortnight with a 32-minute 6-0, 6-0 destruction of Natasha Zvereva in the final. It remains the most lopsided final in the history of the French Open.
Wimbledon would be a considerably tougher proposition, with eight-time champion Martina Navratilova in the mix, but Graf showed foresight in using leftie Mark Woodforde as her hitting partner during the tournament; she ended up facing the left-handed Navratilova in the final. The effectiveness of the move looked doubtful when Graf went down a set and a break to Navratilova, but she recovered with a spell of brilliant play and ultimately pulled off the victory, one she considers to be one of the most satisfying of her career.
From there it was on to New York, where the media and fans were eagerly anticipating the possibility of a Grand Slam. Graf’s opponent in the final was Gabriela Sabatini, the only player who had beaten Fraulein Forehand so far that season. Graf nevertheless completed her sweep with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 defeat of the Argentinean, and courtside to congratulate her was Don Budge, tennis’ first Grand Slammer.
The Olympics was an altogether different experience. (She had won the tournament as a 15-year-old in 1984, when tennis was an Olympic demonstration sport.) In 1988, having achieved the decreed goal of winning the (regular) Grand Slam, Graf faced no more pressure, but fatigue was now starting to set in. She made the trip to Seoul somewhat reluctantly, but once there, found herself enjoying the experience of sharing rooms with other athletes in the Olympic village. Feeling more refreshed, she marched routinely to the gold, beating Sabatini in straight sets in the final.
Having someone of Graf’s stature at the top of the podium helped legitimize tennis’ restoration to the Olympic program. It also established a new high-water mark in the sport. Once every four years, the game’s greats now had something even grander than the Grand Slam to chase. And thus far, they are still chasing.
Steffi: A Biography by Sue Heady, The Encyclopedia of Tennis by Bud Collins, and The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics by David Wallechinsky were used as sources for this article.