Steffi Graf vs Martina Hingis

One of Steffi's best Grand Slam wins was her last one, the 1999 French Open, where she defeated Martina Hingis in three hard fought sets. When I was watching the match at the time, I couldn't focus on how high the quality of tennis from both players was. But after Graf finally won, I was able to watch it again (I got a taped copy), this time a lot more calmly, and I realized that this definitely was a superbly high-quality match, and was fitting for the final.

One of the best rallies in the match was one that involved 32 shots (for those of you who aren't tennis fans, 32 shots in one rally is a LOT - try watching any match and see how many of the rallies actually last more than 10 or even 15 shots). Graf won the point with a cross-court topspin backhand passing shot, and I believe this shot gave her the confidence to keep fighting back (Hingis was up 6-4, 5-4 and serving for the match) and eventually take contro. Steffi proceeded to win the game, as well as next five after that to give her what turned out to be an insurmountable lead. Hingis could not come back after that. This gave Graf her 22nd Grand slam title (second only behind Margaret Court) and her 6th French Open (2nd only behind Chris Evert).



It's quite amazing really. The shot-making precision of both players as well as their ability to keep getting balls back even at full stretch made for such a great match. This final was actually voted by tennis fans as the best women's match of all time. The journalists choice was the Monica Seles-Steffi Graf French Open final of 1992. That Seles-Graf nailbiter that ended 10-8 in the 3rd set would probably get my vote too except for the fact that Steffi lost, and I don't really want the best match of all time to have my favorite player on the losing end. =)