Tennis legend Steffi Graf on her journey from furniture destroyer to Grand Slam victor

Former world number one Steffi Graf has opened up about how she ‘destroyed’ her house furniture during childhood. The 55-year-old is often regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of women’s tennis in the singles category in the Open era, having won as many as 23 Grand Slam titles.

Graf was recently quoted in a report, in which she highlighted how she started playing tennis when she was just three and a half years old. She also revealed that her early tennis-playing days ended up costing her family as she destroyed the furniture in her house.

“I started playing tennis as early as when I was three-and-a-half or four years old,” she said. “I'm not sure if it was tennis but I was carrying around the racket. It started that we used the furniture around the house as the net. And then when I got too good and started destroying the furniture, my mom told me to get out of the house and to get on the court.”

Graf finished her professional career in 1999. Two years later, in 2001, she married the former world number one, America’s Andre Agassi. Graf ended her illustrious career with 103 titles, the third-most in the history of women’s tennis. Her most successful competition was Wimbledon, where she lifted the title seven times.

Graf’s first major triumph was the French Open in 1987, where she defeated former world number one America’s Martina Navratilova in the final with a score of 6–4, 4–6, 8–6. The German tennis star’s last major title was also at Roland Garros, where she beat former world number one Switzerland’s Martina Hingis with a score of 4–6, 7–5, 6–2.

Graf was also successful in the Olympics. In the 1988 edition in Seoul, she won a gold medal for her country in the singles category, defeating Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-3.