very true, only one player could rival steffi’s footwork, roger federer GOATS right there

cierto el foorwork de Steffi increíble

The AO had this slow ReboundAce surface for 20 years from 1988 to 2007. Steffi played it 8 times, won the championship 4 times. No one had a better record on this surface. 😜

She had such a strong 1999 as well, finishing inside of the top 10 for the first time in her career. I recall reading about how she wanted to achieve even more in 2000 and get to the top 5. But she had two very very tough losses to Sanchez Vicario at both the Australian Open and French Open that year. She never really recovered from those losses as she became a top 30-40 player for a while until her retirement. Nothing too shabby of course but one might've thought that she would've gone on to achieve more. But then again, we've seen that before from players who have one strong year but then do a fade after that (e.g. Karina Habsudova in 1996, Irina Spirlea in 1997, etc.)

@@gk891 I would say that some personal reasons played bigger part - breaking up with her coach who was also her partner, and some health issues as well forcing her to withdraw from couple of important tournaments in 2000 where she could not defend her points. But during 2000 - 2002 she was still around No. 21 - 25, quite stable results, occasionally returning to TOP 20 in 2001, so not No. 30 - 40 player, I would say that decline started during 2002 season. By the way in 1999 Barbara had 47 wins, which ranked her at No. 4 regarding the most wins that year, with 12-4 record in Grand Slams.

@@Kuba0002 Oh ok, so top 25 for a few years then which as you said, stable and very respectable. Out of curiosity, what were her health issues?

@@gk891 She had to withdraw from Paris and Hannover in February with a stomach muscle injury, retired at Hamburg and withdrew from Strasbourg in May with a sinus infection. Break up with a coach after Roland Garros in 2000 was fatal anyway. She seemed to lose a lot of confidence afterwards and did not really play the same game, unfortunately.

@@Kuba0002 That's a shame

That's a match I would like to see as well. Because she beat Sanchez Vicario 6:2; 6:2, so very similar score to this one with Graf she lost.

@@Kuba0002 yeah Schett played well here but Stefi was on fire.

@@sebaslasalle7598 To be honest, Barbara seemed to be too nervous in the match against Graf. Too many unforced errors, which she normally did not do.