The reason why Martina Navratilova claimed Steffi Graf was not the greatest female tennis player of all time

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Steffi Graf is widely thought of as one of the greatest WTA players of all time, but Martina Navratilova did not have her as the greatest.

Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles in her decorated career, dominating the WTA Tour in the 1990s.

The German is also part of a successful power couple, with Graf being married to Andre Agassi since 2001.

Graf is admired by many modern-day players, but Navratilova did not think that she was the greatest women’s tennis player of all time.

Why Martina Navratilova once said she did not think Steffi Graf is not the GOAT

Another legendary tennis player is Serena Williams, who retired at the 2022 US Open.

After the 23-time Grand Slam champion officially retired, Navratilova was asked a series of questions about Williams when speaking to wtatennis.com.

One of these questions related to where she ranked Williams in the greatest of all time list, something Navratilova suggested she did not like to do as she claimed ‘you cannot compare generations’.

Navratilova claimed that Williams was certainly up there, before admitting that she did not see Graf as the greatest of all time when she had the most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era.

There were varying years that Navratilova did not play either the Australian Open or Roland Garros, and she claimed the year-end WTA Finals had more importance back then.

“Everybody talks about the GOAT, but you cannot compare generations,” Navratilova said at the time. “There are a handful of people, all-time greats that belong in there.

“For the maybe the last two generations, she is that. Of all time? It depends how you measure it. It’s really hard for me to say because, obviously, I’m not impartial.

“But neither was I thinking Steffi Graf was the greatest when she won 22 majors. You have to look at the whole body of work. We weren’t even playing the Australian Open or even the French Open for a bunch of years.

“The big one for us was the year-ending championship, which I won eight times. These days, Serena’s the greatest in terms of most majors.”

Despite being behind Williams and Graf in terms of majors, Navratilova has won more titles and WTA Finals than any other player in the Open Era.

Martina Navratilova vs Steffi Graf Head-to-Head

Navratilova suggested that she thought she was better than Graf, but there was actually nothing to separate them in terms of their head-to-head.

Playing on 18 occasions in total, both players won eight meetings each, with Navratilova having a slight advantage at both Grand Slams and the WTA Finals.

This includes six major finals, where Graf actually had the advantage with four victories.

Despite there being a significant age difference, both Navratilova and Graf also found themselves on the opposite side of the court to Williams.

Graf played Williams twice, with both players winning one match apiece.

Navratilova really wanted to play Williams in singles, but they were only able to meet on the doubles court, with Serena and older sister Venus Williams winning both times.