Steffi Graf vs. Hana Mandlikova Amelia Island 1989 QF ⭐

[@gk891]

Considering where she was in her career, a pretty good match from Hana.

[@Calicokit101]

Graf was devastating in 1989....won 14 tournaments

[@jujumusique1305]

Yes she was. Yet this is one of the two tournaments she didn’t win that year 😉

[@gk891]

Yes, she did play devastatingly good tennis that year. Yet her form was so disappointing in 1990. I think it was a combination of many things that caused her dip in form. I think part of it was burnout. But there was also her broken thumb which caused her to miss a good part of the year and when she came back, her backhand had changed in that she was hitting it much closer to her body than before. Then came the blackmail scandal. And of course, there was also the rise of Monica Seles and the improvement of Gabriela Sabatini.

[@Calicokit101]

@ Yes, and also the other players figuring out how to beat her (by attacking the backhand and coming to the net). Also, she was probably quite burnt out after three years of absolute dominance....she needed a player like Monica to challenge her....such a shame the rivalry didn't play out naturally....we were all transfixed with it.

[@gk891]

@@Calicokit101 In late 1992 during the indoor court season, Steffi was showing signs that she was starting to come out of her dip in form. She won four indoor court tournaments, not by playing great tennis but by fighting through it in spite of playing at a fairly mediocre level. She looked livelier in 1993 and she looked devastatingly good throughout a good part of 1994 after she finally switched rackets. But it was in 1995 when Steffi made some badly needed amendments to her game. She was going for more aces, she seemed to be taking her forehand a bit earlier, and she finally fixed the extension issue on her backhand. She also (at long last) brought her down the line slice backhand back into her game. She hit that down the line slice backhand a lot in the late 80s but it kind of disappeared in the early 90s. Yes, the Graf-Seles rivalry could have been so amazing if it been allowed to have played out naturally.

[@Calicokit101]

@ I agree.....but for me the biggest difference in her game was that she became more tactically aware and played smarter, percentage tennis.

[@wheresbaby7783]

I was always confused why Steffi Graf didn’t hit more tops and backhand because she hit a most beautiful one I mean she just never would do it from the baseline when when there wasn’t a net rusher except in her very very first couple years why I would love to talk to her about that why

[@gk891]

In the late 80s, she sometimes would hit it during baseline rallies. But she hit it less and less in the 90s. IMO, her topspin backhand could be problematic because it bounced higher than her slice. And against players who hit the ball on the rise (e.g. Seles), that offered them an opportunity to clobber the ball and tee-off on it. I remember at the 1995 U.S Open finals against Seles, Steffi hit some topspin backhands and it didn't always work well. In the commentary booth, Navratilova said that Steffi really needed to be careful with that topspin backhand because it wasn't the right shot to use and that she should stick to her slice because it stayed much lower through the court.