Graf retires in her own style with nothing left to prove

It was typical of Steffi Graf that she chose to announce her retirement yesterday in her home town of Heidelberg and at a time when everybody least expected it.

Quite recently, having previously said she would play neither the French Open nor Wimbledon again, she suggested it had been "a mistake" to say she was about to retire. However it appears this statement, made in the United States, was merely buying her a little time before she returned to Germany to make the announcement strictly on her own terms at what she deemed the appropriate moment.

And so, her final major tournament bow proved to be Wimbledon where she lost this year's final to Lindsay Davenport. It was on the SW19 grass that she won seven of her 22 grand slam titles and, like her compatriot Boris Becker, she always held the tournament closest to her heart.

"After that I feel I have nothing left to accomplish," said Graf, who was close to tears yesterday. "The weeks following Wimbledon weren't easy for me. I'm not having fun anymore."

Her professional career, spanning 17 years, has been one of undiluted success, intertwined with considerable off-court misery, chiefly surrounding her father, coach and manager Peter, who was jailed for tax evasion, costing her more than Stg£12 million in reparation.

Graf, 30 this June, turned professional at 13 and won the French Open at 17. Earlier in 1987 she had defeated Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert in consecutive matches. The next year Graf won all four major titles - the true grand slam - conceding only two sets in the process. And, for good measure, she also won the Olympic gold in Seoul.

Since then all that has prevented her surpassing Margaret Court's record of 24 grand slam titles has been her many injuries, notably since 1997. That year surgery to her left knee marked the slow beginning of the end. Yet against all the odds she won this year's highly-charged French Open against Martina Hingis, claiming it as her "greatest" tournament victory.

Yesterday, though, she qualified that statement by saying: "It was almost too easy to catch up again. I have nothing left to prove." That defeat in the final at Wimbledon, her best surface, when she was outhit and out-manoeuvred by Davenport, probably convinced Graf that her time was up even though it took her one more tournament in San Diego, when she pulled up injured in her opening match, to make the decision irrevocable.