El Enlace de Ensueño - La Boda de Andre Agassi y Steffi Graf

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Stefanie Maria Graf was born on June 14, 1969 in Mannheim, West Germany, the daughter of Heidi Schalk and Peter Graf. Her father was an aspiring tennis coach, introducing Graf to the game by teaching her how to wield a wooden racket at the age of three. At the age of four, she began practicing on court, and entered her first tournament when she was five. Soon enough, she was winning the top prize at numerous junior tournaments.

(Photo by Bob Martin/Getty Images)

Graf began 1988 by defeating Chris Evert and winning the Australian Open, not losing a single set during the tournament. She then won the tournament in Berlin, defended her title at the French Open, and conquered Wimbledon by coming from behind to defeat Navratilova. Finally, upon winning the US Open, Graf took the Grand Slam title, the only such title in history completed across three surfaces: clay, hard court, and grass. The cherry on top of this honor came during the summer Olympic Games in Seoul, where Graf beat Gabriela Sabatini in the gold medal match, and became the first and only Golden Slam winner in history.

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NOTHING BEATS THE SLAM

THE PICKLEBALL SLAM

Get ready to witness the electrifying sequel of the century, The Pickleball Slam 2! Four World #1 ranked players and multi-Slam Champions will compete for a 200m purse. John McEnroe and Maria Sharapova will team up to take on Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf. They have combined for 42 Grand Slam titles – but who will take home the Pickleball Slam 2?

Join us live, and in primetime to be a part of the excitement!

Career Earnings

During her career Steffi earned $21 million in tournament prizes. That's the same as around $40 million in today's dollars. She earned tens of millions more from endorsements.

In 1995 Steffi was accused of tax evasion by German tax authorities. Authorities actually went so far as to arrest Steffi's father, a former used car salesman who managed her finances, for failing to pay income on $25-35 million of her earnings. That constituted roughly every penny she had earned up to that point playing tennis professionally. The Grafs were also accused of writing off $700,000 worth of legal and other expenses that were allegedly used to cover up an extramarital affair conducted by Peter.

Steffi was questioned but placed the blame entirely on her father, who was eventually convicted and sentenced to 45 months in prison. He served 25 months. Steffi had to pay 1.3 million Deutsche Marks in penalties and fines.

At a particularly low point during the saga, July 1996, Steffi was playing in a Wimbledon match when a fan yelled out "Steffi, will you marry me?!" After attempting to gather herself and holding back a laugh for a bit, Steffi finally replied "how much money do you have?!" much to the audience's delight:

Agassi introduced his wife at her Tennis Hall of Fame induction ceremony

Graf was overcome with emotion after Agassi introduced her at her International Tennis Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2004. "As I attempt to find words worthy to introduce the person that has changed my life, I realize the words have yet to be invented that are large enough, colorful enough, or true enough to express the heart and soul of this woman that I love," Agassi said in his speech.