- [Narrator] Steffi Graf and Serena Williams
each represent their own era of tennis.
Graf dominated the late '80s and '90s
with deft footwork and a thunderous forehand.
Her pioneering, record setting approach,
inspired the next generation of players
like Venus and Serena Williams to build their own games
around powerful ground strokes.
Soon after Graf retired, Serena won her first major.
And over the next two decades,
Williams would hone and advance that baseline style
to reign over her contemporaries.
But look closely and you'll see that these two chapters,
these two distinct steps
in the evolution of tennis, overlapped.
The torch didn't pass without some friction.
Months before Steffi Graf retired
and Serena Williams broke out as a star,
titans from different eras battled on the court.
In 1999, Steffi Graf had already owned
women's tennis for over a decade.
Her legacy was set.
The German's aggressive style pushed the game forward.
She preferred the baseline to the net,
preferred bold attacks to long rallies.
Graf used her fast serve
and spinning one handed backhand
to bait you into teeing up her forehand.
And once you made that mistake,
she'd pummel the ball straight through your neck.
That's how you end up with a nickname like this:
Entering the 1999 WTA tour,
the German owned 21 grand slam titles,
more than anyone but Margaret Court.
And she spread the glory across all playing surfaces.
Graf won a straight up grand slam in 1988,
then became the only player ever to win each major
at least four times.
But it had been a while.
Graf spent her late twenties nursing injuries
to her back, knees, and wrist,
several of which required surgery.
She openly pondered retirement before 30.
And even after a reassuring end to the '98 season,
the queen of tennis ranked just tenth in the world.
But in January, Graf showed up in Sydney
for the Adidas Internationals feeling good and healthy
for the first time in a while.
The oldest player in the draw for this pre Australian Open
tune-up, made quick work of her first opponent.
That set up a second round match against
the number 22 player in the world,
someone she'd only faced in exhibition play,
Serena Williams.
The 17 year old had been WTA newcomer of the year in 1998.
She'd debuted in all four majors
and beaten some big name opponents.
But after a controversial collapse at the French Open
and a strange injury retirement at Wimbledon,
Serena Williams was still considered
Venus's less refined younger sister.
Serena's game clearly drew from Steffi's.
She won points from the baseline
with a big serve and big ground strokes.
Unlike Graf, Williams wielded an explosive
two handed backhand as her favorite knockout punch.
Since falling off her skateboard and busting her left wrist,
Serena had honed a pretty mighty forehand too.
Cutting chemistry class paid off in the long run.
Let that detail remind you
that we are talking about a high schooler,
a player 13 years younger than Graf.
Serena got her braces off just a few weeks
before this match.
And from its outset, Serena showed all the promise
and volatility of a teen.
The very first point she played
against the star of her youth, was an ace.
And yet several unforced errors
and an argument with the umpire later,
Serena had her first service game broken.
You can actually hear the announcers wonder
if the youngster might be daunted by her opponent.
I don't know about that, but Williams didn't have
enough of a plan against Graf, especially in the first set.
The strategy against Graf at this point in her career
was to expose her clear preference to hit forehands.
But watch a point like this one.
Serena lures Graf into a backhand rally.
Then with the whole court open,
lets Steffi get back to her forehand to just end it.
And then there were errors of execution.
When Serena did go for it, like this big backhand,
she missed far too often.
All of that plus inaccurate serving,
sunk Serena to two early breaks and a lost first set.
In the second set, Graf faltered
and Williams showed some mettle.
On set point Graf's signature backhand slice caught net,
giving the teenager an even match
and a chance to topple the legend in three sets.
The announcers sounded iffy, but given her record,
wouldn't rule it out.
- -[Announcer] Serena Williams won some big matches
in her career already.
Beat Lindsey Davenport here last year, Seles, Pierce.
You know, she can definitely beat Graf today,
there's no doubt.
Will she?
I don't know, that's why we're going to stay
and watch this third set.
- [Narrator] But after a 10 minute break
to recover from the 98 degree heat of the Sydney summer,
Serena wasted an early break by getting broke herself,
setting the table for this devastating Graf forehand
on break point.
I'm just going to spoil this and tell you that the third set
included Serena reacting to her own errors,
and reacting to the chair umpire,
and then ended in a Graf victory.
But I do want to sit on a couple points in this third set.
This long terrific point turns when Serena notices
Steffi shifted to open her forehand.
Serena just plugs that hole with a massive backhand
down the line.
But Williams played too often into Graf's wheelhouse.
If you just gift Graf a forehand like this,
she's going to smoke it back
with more pace than you can handle.
That's the match.
So Serena went home opportunity unseized.
Here are some telling stats.
Serena missed most of her first serves.
She recorded 47 unforced errors to just 32 winners,
and whiffed way too many of her big backhands.
And as far as attacking Graf's backhand,
Serena sent less than half of her backhands cross court,
and almost none of her forehands down the line.
Graf would go on to power through illness
and defeat Venus Williams in the next round.
She fell to Lindsay Davenport in the Sydney semifinal.
And that was sort of the shape
of Graf's next couple of months.
She made the late rounds of tournaments,
but fell repeatedly to younger, higher ranked opponents.
Monica Seles at the Australian open,
followed by Martina Hingis in Japan.
Then a tough loss to Venus in her home country of Germany.
But Graf resembled the Steffi of old.
And in March, she returned to a tournament final
at the Everett cup in Indian Wells, California.
Her opponent: Serena Williams.
Hiiii! It had only been two months since they last met,
or in Serena's words, a long time.
The 17 year old said
she couldn't play back then, back then.
Serena didn't even remember losing to Graf in January.
She was young two months ago.
She didn't lose those kinds of matches anymore.
I love this.
And the wild thing is her semifinal opponent,
Sandrine Testud, who'd faced her twice during that interim,
kind of agreed.
It had been that exciting a two month stretch.
Serena entered the Indian Wells final
on a 10 match win streak that included
her first WTA singles title.
She upset French woman Amelie Mauresmo in France.
At Indian Wells, she'd taken down the likes of Davenport,
Mary Pierce, and Testud without dropping a set.
All this despite knee inflammation bad enough
that her dad suggested she bail.
Without getting specific, Serena attributed the streak
to a sort of epiphany in practice
before that breakthrough victory in Paris.
Since then, she'd matured.
She wasn't playing around anymore.
It was her turn, her time to take over.
And now it was time to prove that in a rematch against Graf.
Serena expected a great battle
between a good athlete and a great one.
She wouldn't be intimidated by Steffi,
not unless she had grown 10 feet tall and turned green,
which she had not, I am happy to report.
So let's see how that went.
From the first set, you can see Serena
not only connecting on more first serves,
but directing them at Graf's backhand,
like this one to pull ahead two-one.
Serena would even use a big backhand like this
to approach and finish a point at the net,
which she hardly did in the first match.
Of course, this is still (bleep) Steffi Graf
we're talking about.
You can approach exactly the right way
and still get frozen by a perfect lob.
Even against vintage Steffi, Serena found the early break.
At four-three, she thumped a return at Graf's backhand
then approached to win the point when Graf missed long.
Later in Graf's service game,
same thing with extra sauce on that volley.
Serena broke Graf to go up five-three,
then finished the set with this massive serve,
the kind she'd been missing against Graf in January.
In the second set Graf regained ground.
Like in the first match, she roped Serena
into longer rallies that ended in unforced errors,
like this one that broke Serena's serve
to put Steffi up three-one.
And this time it was Graf who rallied to force a third set.
Williams started serving that final set and stumbled.
She missed long on a rally ending lob.
Then on breakpoint, she committed a silly unforced error.
Venus looked concerned.
Before she knew it, Serena was behind two games to love
with a trainer tending to that sore knee.
It didn't look good, but Serena at least held serve
through the middle of the set.
This ace made the score three-four.
Serena was hanging around.
Now it was time to show us the kind of next level tennis
that would carry her to greatness in the next century.
Graf serving, up four-three.
First point, Serena pounds a backhand return
then gets the ball to Graf's backhand with pace, error Graf.
Moments later, Serena drills another backhand return.
Graf drifts left and Serena chases her
with a mighty cross-court backhand she can't wrangle.
Graf rallies to 40-30, which makes this point critical.
Nice camera work too.
Serena stays focused.
A huge cross-court forehand to pull Graf one way,
then a bigger one down the line that's too much
for Graf's backhand.
Later on at deuce, we get the 22 shot point of the match.
Serena uses a great return to initiate a backhand rally.
Graf slices her way out of it.
And we get some tricky forehand straight up the middle.
Serena drags Graf back to her backhand side
and then boom, beats Graf at her own game
with a huge cross-court forehand
Graf catches too late.
On break point, Serena sends a forehand down the line
and she is back in business, four all,
and by business I mean a service game
in which the teenager clocks aces
at 110 and 109 miles per hour.
Serena goes up five-four on a bad Graf drop shot.
She smells victory.
She'll take it from five all to six-five
by chewing up a pretty deep Graf forehand return
and just spitting it down the line with her backhand.
Up six-five, Serena goes in.
Some friendly tape gets her 15.
She annihilates a Graf second serve for 30.
At 30 all Graf messes up and Serena's got 40.
Match point and the crowd can feel it coming.
(cheering)
This battle ends exactly the way it should,
two baseline titans just slug it out.
Big cross-court backhand by Serena,
backhand slice by Steffi.
An exchange of mostly forehands,
and Serena's got Steffi playing defense.
Steffi cheats to her left and Serena slams
a cross-court backhand tough to run around
and Steffi sends it long.
Serena Williams is Everett Open champion
in front of her family and an ecstatic
home state crowd.
To see how, let's check those stats again.
First serve accuracy, way up.
Way fewer unforced errors and more winners,
even in a shorter match.
And here's the strategy:
Serena directed more backhands at Graf's backhand
and used a healthier share of forehands
to keep points on that side.
This was a better-prepared, finer-tuned,
more aggressive player.
Serena really had matured in six weeks,
but she still looked totally dazzled to hear
a player she grew up watching marvel at that development.
- Serena, I mean she really played
an incredible match today.
(applause)
She was really going for her shots, congratulations again.
- [Narrator] Serena collected the biggest check
of her career to date and a trophy,
both of which would pale in comparison
to the victories ahead.
Williams predicted she'd be in the top 10 by year's end.
Months later, she beat Hingis to win the US Open
and entered the 21st century
ranked number four in the world.
Starting in 2002, Williams had her version
of Graf's incredible 1988.
She won the French Open, Wimbledon,
and the US Open in order.
Then grabbed the '03 Australian Open,
all of these against her sister,
to complete the so-called Serena Slam.
She performed a similar feat in 2014 and '15.
Serena's 2017 Australian Open win,
also over Venus, marked her 23rd grand slam final victory,
besting Graf's career milestone.
If you were listening closely before,
that number might sound slightly off.
Graf entered '99 with 21 major titles,
but a couple months after she lost to Serena
Graf made a vintage warrior like run at Roland-Garros.
She beat seeds two, three, and one,
all in three sets to become 1999 French Open champion.
Before Williams won her first major,
Graf snuck in her 22nd.
But soon after falling to Davenport in the Wimbledon final,
Steffi decided she had enough.
At age 30, Graf might have kept winning,
but she felt she had nothing left to accomplish,
and she wasn't having fun anymore.
She retired.
Ever since, Graf's been left to root for other Germans
trying to topple Serena.
Otherwise, Steffi's a Serena fan.
Her vocal support still makes Williams
feel like a little kid again.
And that to me is what makes this story special.
Serena Williams grew up admiring Steffi Graf on television,
like the rest of her generation.
She'd go on to imitate and build upon Steffi's game
and to match many of her accomplishments.
In between, Serena got to step inside the television
and test her developing game against that of the prototype.
And after faltering once, she passed that test.
Each of these tennis greats owned an era,
but their legacies aren't totally separate in time.
For a few thrilling moments, they overlapped.