Steffi & Monica: The Greatest Rivalry That Never Was

Step onto the sun-baked lawns of Wimbledon in 1988, where legends clashed and history was rewritten. In this episode, we relive the unforgettable women’s final between Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova—a match that marked the end of one era and the dawn of another. From Graf’s steamrolling run through the draw and Martina’s gritty last stand, to the dramatic Evert–Navratilova semifinal and the emotional aftermath, we unpack the rivalries, the pressure of the Grand Slam chase, and the moments that made this tournament a turning point in tennis history. Hear the stories behind iconic points, locker room quotes, and the legacy left by two of the game’s greatest champions.

What does true perfection look like in tennis—and why is it so elusive? This episode dives deep into the elusive “golden match,” the feat of winning 48 straight points without conceding one, and explores how the pursuit of flawless play has haunted the greatest champions for decades.

Step onto the red clay of Roland Garros as we relive the most jaw-dropping French Open in history. In this episode, the unstoppable Steffi Graf faces a teenage takeover, a collapsing old guard, and a final so ruthless she apologizes for her own brilliance. Experience the drama, the rivalries, the heartbreak—and the performance that left the tennis world speechless. From locker room tension to club nights in Paris, we break down every twist, every upset, and every legend in the making.

Travel back to the pivotal months of early 1988, when women’s tennis was on the brink of transformation. Still only 18, Steffi Graf was on the verge of rewriting the record books, while a teen prodigy named Monica Seles was about to explode onto the scene. Gabriela Sabatini was about to make a major breakthrough as legends like Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert watched the rise of a new generation. The game itself was changing—new surfaces, new rivalries, and new expectations.

In this episode, we dive into Steffi Graf’s historic triumph at the 1988 Australian Open—a tournament that redefined the sport, crowned Graf as Germany’s first singles champion in Melbourne, and set the stage for her legendary Golden Slam. We explore the drama on and off the court, the new era of Australian tennis, and the shifting rivalries that marked the end of one dynasty and the rise of another.

In 1987, women’s tennis was transformed as Steffi Graf dethroned legends, seized the No. 1 ranking, and ignited a fierce season-long debate: Does greatness mean dominating all year, or winning the biggest titles? As Martina Navratilova fights to defend her crown, a generational showdown unfolds—culminating in one of the sport’s most dramatic years and the ultimate question: Who really deserves to be number one?

In Paris, 1987, Steffi Graf arrives as the rising No. 2 seed—crushing early rounds, surviving a tense semifinal with Gabriela Sabatini, and stepping into a final that feels like a referendum on the sport’s future. Across the net is Martina Navratilova, the reigning No. 1, brilliant but visibly under pressure to hold off the new era. In the deciding set, Martina surges to a lead and serves for the championship—only for the match to swing on free points, nerves, and a closing stretch where Graf stays steady and capitalizes. The result is a French Open final that doesn’t just crown a champion—it signals a changing of the guard.

In March 1987, tennis fans are introduced to 13-year-old Monica Seles not through match footage, but through a hype machine. Nick Bollettieri brands her “the Baltic Basher,” calls her the best young player he’s ever seen, and frames her family’s ambition as singular: nothing less than No. 1. In this episode we learn the truth about Monica's first few months at the Bollettieri Academy, the price she paid for a tennis education that seemed too good to be true, and the Seles family that rallied not to make Monica No. 1, but to make her happy.

When Martina Navratilova loses in Rome in 1987, she doesn’t just brush it off—she bristles at the idea that the world is already rehearsing her dethroning. She stays on the clay to grind, watches 17-year-old Steffi Graf’s surge, and admits the chase is real. Then comes the detail that says everything: Martina starts experimenting with the exact Dunlop model Graf uses—trying a Max 200G in Rome, and arriving in Paris with a black-painted version that fools no one. This bonus episode is a tense prologue to Roland Garros 1987: the reigning queen feeling the heat, rewriting her own habits, and reaching for the future’s weapon, just to try and hold onto the present.

Steffi Graf arrives at the 1987 Lipton as “the future” and leaves having crushed both queens of the game. In this episode, we pick up after her heartbreaking 1986 US Open semi vs Martina Navratilova, track her rise to No. 2 over Chris Evert, and then walk through 1987 Key Biscayne: the windy beatdown of Navratilova in the semis and the 6–1, 6–2 dismantling of Evert in her home state. Was this the week women’s tennis unofficially changed hands?

From basement drills in Brühl to center court at Amelia Island, Steffi Graf’s rise wasn’t a solo act—and it definitely wasn’t quiet. In this episode, we zoom in on Peter Graf: the restless figure pacing the stands, flashing “support” signals, arguing with officials, and clashing with the press long before tax scandals and tabloid headlines.We follow Peter and his growing friction with journalists, and the way his courtside behavior finally spills over at Amelia Island, where Steffi faces Claudia Kohde-Kilsch for the title.If you’re interested in the line between devoted tennis parent and disruptive sideline presence, this is the episode where we put Peter in the spotlight.

Relive the electric 1986 US Open semifinal where 17-year-old Steffi Graf went toe-to-toe with world No. 1 Martina Navratilova and came within a swing or two of the biggest win of her young career. We walk point-by-point through that epic third-set tiebreak, break down Steffi’s ruthless run through the draw, and revisit contemporary reports from New York that crowned her Martina’s “natural successor.” A deep-dive for tennis fans, Graf obsessives, and anyone who loves high-stakes, coming-of-age sports drama.

Before Steffi Graf became a 22-time Grand Slam champion, she was a teenager grinding through Futures events, qualifiers, and lonely early-round losses. In this episode, we zoom in on the moment everything changed: her first WTA Tour title in Hilton Head, 1986, where a 16-year-old Steffi finally breaks through and beats Chris Evert in the final.We follow Steffi from the satellite circuit and junior dominance to the setbacks that almost sent her back to school, the thumb injury in Australia, the “I never want to play on grass again” meltdown, and the Olympic breakthrough in Los Angeles. Then we track her 1985 run of near-misses—constantly running into Evert—and how that all builds toward Hilton Head, where she turns the tables on the queen of the baseline and finally announces herself as a real threat to both Evertand Martina Navratilova.

In this episode of Steffi & Monica: The Greatest Rivalry That Never Was, we hit pause on Graf and Seles and step back into the kingdom they inherited: the long, sprawling era of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.For more than a decade, women’s tennis is basically a two-woman empire. Evert, the icy, error-proof baseline queen, and Navratilova, the explosive lefty serve-and-volleyer, build a rivalry that defines the sport. They win most of the majors, meet in 14 Slam finals, and become the template every little girl with a racket grows up watching — including a young Steffi in West Germany and Monica in Yugoslavia.Episode 5 is the story of the queens who ruled before Steffi and Monica, the prodigies like Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger who flared and vanished, and the trap we fall into when we use “quality of competition” to erase what women actually did against the fields in front of them. It sets the stage for what comes next: Steffi’s first title, Monica’s arrival, and a rivalry that should have changed everything.

In this episode, we follow Monica Seles from a Hungarian-speaking family in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, all the way to her first big-stage appearance at the 1988 Virginia Slims of Florida in Boca Raton—her early life before Grand Slams, before world No. 1, before the headlines. We trace how her father, Károly Seles, an Olympic-caliber triple jumper turned cartoonist, turned a cracked parking lot into a homemade tennis court, sketching flipbook cartoons to teach her strokes while neighbors complained about scuff marks on their cars; how Monica’s obsession with hitting “just a few more balls” led from local courts to the Orange Bowl and then a scholarship at Nick Bollettieri’s Florida academy, where she quickly became one of his most unusual and feared young talents. The episode builds to Boca Raton: a 14-year-old Monica Seles earning a wildcard into the main draw and facing her childhood idol, Chris Evert. Along the way, we draw parallels to Steffi Graf’s own childhood, showing how two shy, fiercely focused girls with driven fathers and worried mothers were quietly being shaped into the forces that would one day challenge the Evert–Navratilova era.

Before Steffi Graf was a Grand Slam legend, she was a shy German kid smashing lamps in her parents’ living room and grinding on cold club courts. In this episode, we follow Steffi from basement practices with her dad in Mannheim and early junior heartbreak at the Sport Scheck tournament in Munich, to her brutal training days in Leimen alongside a young Boris Becker and her first pro match against Tracy Austin in Filderstadt—complete with the now-famous “hundreds like her” quote that seriously aged badly. If you love women’s tennis history, German tennis, or just want to know how a future No. 1 is built long before the WTA rankings ever notice, this deep dive into Steffi’s pre-tour years is for you.

Steffi Graf and Monica Seles didn’t become legends alone. In this episode, we go inside the Graf and Seles families: Peter and Heidi in Mannheim, Karolj and Ester in Novi Sad. A hard-driving car-and-insurance salesman and a creative cartoonist/PE teacher each decide tennis is their child’s ticket out. We trace how two very different parents, cultures and childhoods helped forge two of the fiercest champions in tennis history—and set the stage for the Graf–Seles rivalry that would change women’s tennis forever.

In our debut episode, we rewind to the late 1960s and ’70s and drop in on two very different childhoods: Steffi Graf growing up in postwar West Germany and Monica Seles in socialist Yugoslavia. As women’s tennis explodes into the Open Era—with Billie Jean King, the “Original 9,” the Battle of the Sexes, and the Nikola Pilić boycott reshaping the sport—we trace how this new world of money, power, and politics quietly sets the stage for the Graf–Seles rivalry that would change tennis history.

Two women’s tennis legends. One rivalry cut short by a deranged tennis fan. In this narrative podcast, host Matt Pence sets up the stage for the unfinished story of the tennis rivalry between Steffi Graf and Monica Seles. Episode by episode, we revisit 80s/90s WTA history, reimagine the missing Graf–Seles seasons, and ask: What if the greatest rivalry in women’s tennis had been allowed to play out?