Peter Graf

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Peter Graf (18 June 1938 – 30 November 2013) was a German tennis coach and the father and longtime manager of Steffi Graf, one of the world’s greatest female tennis players.

Born in Mannheim, Graf was the only child of Alfons and Rosemarie Graf in a strict Catholic home. After World War II, he went to the Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium Mannheim. His mother died in 1956, and he later had a strained relationship with his father. He played football for FC Friedrichsfeld and worked as an insurance salesman and car dealer. He didn’t discover tennis until he was 27, but soon became a regional league player, earned a coaching license, and owned a tennis hall.

In 1968 he married Heidi Graf. They had two children: Stefanie (Steffi) in 1969 and Michael in 1971. Graf introduced tennis to his children and started teaching Steffi, even practicing in a living room and the family’s tennis hall.

In the mid-1970s he became a player-coach for the TC Bensheim men’s team, where Steffi joined in 1977 at age eight. Impressed by her talent, Graf stopped his other work two years later to focus on coaching his daughter. Steffi soon showed great promise, becoming a district champion. The press labeled her a “child prodigy,” and Graf registered her on the WTA tour in 1982 at age 13. He tightly controlled her schedule and social life to keep her from burning out and to keep her focused on training.

Pavel Složil later served as Steffi’s on-court coach, but Graf continued to make key decisions about her career and marketing.

In 1990 a German tabloid, Bild, caused a scandal by claiming Graf was having an affair and that there was a secret paternity. Steffi cried at a Wimbledon press conference, and the story affected her that season. The woman involved was later jailed for blackmail, and Graf had paid 800,000 marks to prevent publication.

In 1995 Peter and Steffi were accused of tax evasion. Steffi said her father had controlled her financial affairs at that time. Graf was taken into custody on suspicion of tax evasion, and he lost his role as Steffi’s manager. He and a financial adviser were convicted of tax evasion totaling 12.3 million marks and Graf was sentenced to 45 months in prison. He served about 25 months and was released in early 1998.

Graf and Heidi separated in 1998 and divorced in 1999. He later married Britta, whom he had known since childhood, in August 1999.

Peter Graf died of cancer in Mannheim on 30 November 2013, at the age of 75.