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When Steffi Received A Marriage Proposal At Wimbledon
23 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
By Scoop Malinowski
One of the most memorable, unscripted light-hearted Grand Slam moments happened at 1996 Wimbledon semifinals in a duel between Steffi Graf and Kimiko Date.
Graf won the first set 62 but was down 24 in the second set. While serving ahead 40-15, and about to serve a first serve to try to close out the game, a male fan interrupted the contest by shouting loudly, “Steffi will you marry me?”
Graf paused and smiled and was clearly amused by the shocking disruption of her concentration. After about ten seconds, it was clear to see Graf enjoyed the spontaneity, timing and humor of the question and then launched her witty reply to her suitor, “How much money do you have?” The mystery man did not answer his potential conquest.
After the romantic interlude completed, the match resumed and on the very next point, Graf netted a forehand on her first shot. Graf then proceeded to lose that game and the set 26. Because it was early evening and darkening quickly, Wimbledon officials decided to half the match and complete the third set the next day.
NBC TV commentators Tracy Austin and Dick Enberg both agreed the momentary lapse of focus from Graf and her graceful decline of the life-changing proposal did not help her play. “I think that actually hurt her,” Enberg noted. “It was very rare to see Steffi joke around at that point of a match,” observed Austin.
After an evening to ponder the situation, Graf regained her top form the next morning. The following day was sunny and perfect conditions and Graf got herself back on track and thwarted Date’s career best play which was her deepest run into a Grand Slam. Graf attained the victory on her third match point for the 62 26 63 victory to set up a final vs Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario which would be their 35th duel.
Graf lead the head to head to that point 26-8 and as expected, won the final 63 75 for her seventh and last Wimbledon championship.
Graf did reach the Wimbledon final of 1999 but lost to Lindsay Davenport 64 75.
My book Facing Steffi Graf/Serena Williams is available at lulu.com for $9.99!
adidas · Germany · Kimiko Date · Steffi Graf · Wilson tennis · Wimbledon
Scoop Malinowski · October 4, 2023 at 9:40 pm
Funny moment but kind of an embarrassingly unsophisticated response by Steffi. She may have been embarrassed by it which caused her to lose that game and set. Can’t recall her ever clowning around at a Grand Slam on court after this little episode.
Sam · October 6, 2023 at 7:56 am
Funny moment but kind of an embarrassingly unsophisticated response by Steffi. She may have been embarrassed by it which caused her to lose that game and set.
I remember that. Yeah, her response was really dumb. 🥴 If that’s all she cared about after all those years on the tour, then who’d want to marry her?
Scoop Malinowski · October 6, 2023 at 8:50 am
Sam, there’s a reason why Graf declined to do the long sitdown interview with Evert for the WTA no. 1 series, she and Capriati were the only ones to not do it, even Seles did it and it was the best interview I ever saw Seles do.
Sam · October 8, 2023 at 3:31 pm
Scoop, because Graf didn’t have good interviewing skills?
Interesting about Capriati. I wonder what her problem was? 🤔
Scoop Malinowski · October 8, 2023 at 6:50 pm
She never had a childhood. She was forced to be an adult at age 14. Then she rebelled and partied like the all time wild child. I’ve heard some of the stories of her exploits and adventures and they are absolutely shocking. They almost make Hingis and Evert look like nuns. Graf was an introvert and though she was comfortable playing tennis in front of millions, she was no Seles or Petkovic in her interviews.
Sam · October 10, 2023 at 8:07 pm
She never had a childhood. She was forced to be an adult at age 14.
That’s really awful. Well, no doubt her parents—her dad especially—were to blame. 😢
Scoop Malinowski · October 10, 2023 at 10:10 pm
Sam, most all of exceptional junior players sacrifice everything for tennis, Pennetta quotes mention it in the article I just did on her US Open 2015 shock win. To be a pro player requires total sacrifice and dedication. Also true for the great artists. My friend LeRoy Neiman did nothing else but his art, his wife told me this on one of my many visits. Capriati loved it to some degree to keep going and get as far as she did, Seles was just slightly too much for her, in her first career stage.
Sam · October 12, 2023 at 8:49 pm
Yeah, I guess you can’t have a life and be a sports phenom too. 😼
But it’s interesting that Andrea Jaeger said she always preferred hanging out in the locker rooms of the lower-ranked players (even though she’d get in trouble for it). She said that, in general, those players seemed happier—and weren’t focused just on tennis.
Scoop Malinowski · October 12, 2023 at 9:00 pm
Sam, I never knew Jaeger said that. It makes sense, the lower ranked players are more normal as the super elites are freaks in a sense, obsessed to win as much as possible.
Sam · October 15, 2023 at 9:03 pm
Yes, Scoop, it actually does make a lot of sense. And here’s the article where she said that.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-560743/Why-I-nun-tennis-star-Andrea-Jaeger.html
“I didn’t enjoy locker-rooms. I got in trouble at Wimbledon because I’d hang out in the third players’ locker-room when I was supposed to stay in the seeded players’ locker-room but I didn’t like it up there.
“Everyone seemed to be happier in the lower players’ locker-room. They weren’t thinking about the semis or the final and weren’t focused just on tennis. They were just happy to be at Wimbledon.
“The worst thing was walking in after a match when somebody had lost. I didn’t feel good about beating people.
Scoop Malinowski · October 16, 2023 at 8:05 am
Jaeger apparently wasn’t a ruthless killer, which all the top players are. They have no compassion on court about killing player’s careers, ambitions to be elite Grand Slam champions.
Sam · October 18, 2023 at 9:38 pm
Right, and I guess that’s what makes Jaeger so interesting. She said that to do well in an individual sport, you have to be kind of selfish, and I think she’s right.
By the way, have you ever met or interviewed her? 🤔
And do you remember the story of her “flop” in the final of Wimbledon? The day before, apparently she was having problems with her father, so she ran out of their “flat” frantically and knocked on the door where Navratilova was staying in search of help. She said that Navratilova was very cold toward her, and merely offered her a phone book or something like that. Right then, she realized she’d interrupted Navratilova’s “super-focus” mode for the final, and felt so bad about it that she made up her mind to tank the final the next day. She also said that, if she’d been an adult, she could’ve never treated a teenager the way Navratilova treated her. 😕
So . . . she tanked the final. Could she have won the match? I don’t really know, but I definitely believe
she could’ve given a stiffer challenge 💪 and at least grabbed a set.
Sam · October 18, 2023 at 9:52 pm
Okay, I found the article with the story about Jaeger tanking the final:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-1031959/EXCLUSIVE-Jaegers-confession–I-let-Martina-win-title.html
Scoop Malinowski · October 18, 2023 at 9:56 pm
With all that off court drama it’s easy to imagine a kid like Jaeger subconsciously tanking a Wimbledon final. Yes top tennis champs are all self centered and one team member of Connors told me once that Jimbo was the biggest narcissist he ever encountered. He knew him as well as anyone. Jaeger yes I did interview her about asking her what was the best she ever felt on court and she said the FO mixed title win with fellow teen Jimmy Arias was her most special tennis memory. Two kids with no pressure and they won a Grand Slam. It’s in one of my old articles titled The Joy Of Tennis which you can find on the search bar.
Scoop Malinowski · October 18, 2023 at 9:58 pm
She probably subconsciously tanked it, just too young and not ready for such a lofty achievement and all the life changing things that come with it.
Sam · October 21, 2023 at 10:11 pm
With all that off court drama it’s easy to imagine a kid like Jaeger subconsciously tanking a Wimbledon final. . . . just too young and not ready for such a lofty achievement and all the life changing things that come with it.
There may have been some of that too, but I believe her story about making a conscious decision to let Martina win because she felt so bad about interrupting her concentration. And what a witch Martina sounds like. 🧙🏻
Yes top tennis champs are all self centered and one team member of Connors told me once that Jimbo was the biggest narcissist he ever encountered. He knew him as well as anyone.
I believe that too. 🤭
Jaeger yes I did interview her about asking her what was the best she ever felt on court and she said the FO mixed title win with fellow teen Jimmy Arias was her most special tennis memory.
Makes sense—it was probably so special to her because it wasn’t just all about her but in partnership with someone else. In other words, it didn’t feel as selfish to her as winning an individual title.
Two kids with no pressure and they won a Grand Slam. It’s in one of my old articles titled The Joy Of Tennis which you can find on the search bar.
Okay, thanks—I’ll have to find that one.
Sam · October 21, 2023 at 10:33 pm
I found the article, Scoop. Just what I anticipated—Jaeger was simply having fun and enjoying being in the moment, not really caring whether she won or lost. A very “pure” kind of excitement. 🥰
Also when I did the search, I found this article:
https://www.tennis-prose.com/bios/andrea-jaeger-on-john-mcenroe/
Did Jaeger herself actually write this piece?
And who was the actual bully she was talking about? Was it Martina?? 🧐
Scoop Malinowski · October 22, 2023 at 9:09 am
Yes Jaeger wrote this on a Facebook post and I thought it worthy of a special post to share, very insightful. She meant Evert. Interesting, two French teens later repeated what Andrea Jaeger and Jimmy Arias did – Richard Gasquet and Tatiana Golovin also won FO mixed as young teens.
Sam · October 24, 2023 at 8:50 pm
She meant Evert.
That’s very interesting, Scoop. I remember way back in the ’90s, I read a newspaper article about Evert in which she admitted that she was an “ice queen” toward the other players, while she said they tended to view Martina as much more friendly. She basically said that she felt she had to be that way in order to be successful. 🙁
And then when you consider how she was in such a hurry to abort the baby that Jimmy Connors fathered without even asking for his opinion, well, it all kinda makes sense. 🤮
Interesting about Gasquet and Golovin.
Scoop Malinowski · October 24, 2023 at 9:19 pm
Sam, it’s common with top WTA players and some ATP to totally detach from everyone else, Steffi never socialized with players other than Stubbs. She wouldn’t even shower in the locker room. Sharapova was also known for being aloof from other players and also she never showered in the locker room either I was told. Sampras didn’t talk to players. Amritraj told me Vilas didn’t talk to anyone. So Evert is a member of the aloof club. ALso I’m told some top players won’t talk with lower ranked strugglers, Korda was accused of this. Rios was also a loner for most of the early part of his career.
Sam · October 28, 2023 at 1:45 am
Sam, it’s common with top WTA players and some ATP to totally detach from everyone else, Steffi never socialized with players other than Stubbs.
Doesn’t really surprise me with Steffi, who always seemed like a cold fish. 🐟 What about Monica?
Sampras didn’t talk to players.
I’ve always heard he’s a snob. 🧐
So Evert is a member of the aloof club.
With Chris, it seems that everything came second to her career. She even said that her first husband was perfect—she just had nothing left to give to the marriage. What’s interesting is that even her own family was mad at her for divorcing him. 🤔
ALso I’m told some top players won’t talk with lower ranked strugglers, Korda was accused of this.
The elder one?
Rios was also a loner for most of the early part of his career.
I bet he still is. 😊
Scoop Malinowski · October 28, 2023 at 8:50 am
Seles of course was an extrovert but she said it was very hard to have any real friends in pro tennis, as everyone was in competition. So she was not very social or close with players. Hingis was the first one who was very social with other players in the locker room but also she didn’t have any close true friends.
Scoop Malinowski · October 28, 2023 at 8:51 am
Older Korda.