Steffi Graf is one of the finest tennis players of all time and had several incredible seasons throughout her illustrious career. One of them happened in 1988, when she won all four Grand Slams and the Olympic gold in Seoul, winning the career Golden Slam.
The German also came close to winning the Golden Super Slam, which was clinching all of the aforementioned titles and the year-end championships. She entered the Virginia Slims Championships (now known as the WTA Finals) as the top seed and booked her place in the semi-finals with wins over compatriot Claudia Kohde-Kilsch and seventh seed Manuela Maleeva.
Graf faced fifth seed Pam Shriver, who had beaten Chris Evert in the quarterfinals. Shriver produced an impressive performance to defeat the German 6-3, 7-6, ending Graf’s 46-match winning streak.
Speaking after the match, the then-World No. 1 said that she had no chance of winning.
”I had no chance. I wasn’t myself,” Graf said, as quoted by the New York Times.
The then-teenager also said that while she didn’t have a better ending to the 1988 season, her achievements during the year were “incredible”.
”What I already achieved this year is incredible to me. Sure, I wanted to have a better ending to my year, but it was not my choice,” she said.
Speaking on her win, Shriver said:
”I was concentrating as hard as I’ve ever concentrated. I’ve been trying to work on my emotions for quite a while. Never once did I rehash something.”
Pam Shriver faced Gabriela Sabatini in the final of the 1988 Virginia Slims Championships, with the Argentine winning 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.
The semi-finals of the 1988 Virginia Slims Championships was the last time Steffi Graf ever lost to Pam Shriver. They locked horns on another two occasions after that, with the German triumphing both times.
Graf and Shriver squared off in the second round of the 1992 US Open, with the German winning 7-5, 6-3. Their last encounter came in the second round of the Virginia Slims of Philadelphia in 1993, which Graf won 6-1, 6-3.
Steffi Graf and Pam Shriver faced each other on 12 occasions, with the German leading 9-3. While the two never locked horns in a final, they faced off in six semi-finals. Two of them came at Wimbledon, with Graf thrashing the American 6-0, 6-2 in 1987 and 6-1, 6-2 in 1988.
One of the closest fixtures between the two came in the quarter-finals of the US Open in 1985, with the German winning 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-6(4) to register her first win over Shriver.
