Graf Remains Hotshot : Despite Injury, She Stops Sukova for Australian Title

Just how good is Steffi Graf?

In the searing hot midday sun, with all the weight of a Grand Slam title resting on her slender shoulders, Graf played the Australian Open final with a nagging knee injury and still won in 2 sets that took only 71 minutes.

Graf recorded her fifth consecutive Grand Slam title Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Helena Sukova that wasn’t nearly as routine as it might have been.

The 19-year-old West German suffered an apparent sprained left knee in her doubles match Friday, according to Peter Graf, who said his daughter clearly wasn’t herself in the final.

“When Steffi hurt it, she said it was nothing,” he said. “But it was something after all.”

Steffi Graf, who said her left knee was also sore when she won the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics, said it is a chronic problem.

“I’ve had it before,” she said. “It comes and goes.”

Peter Graf said she hurt her knee making a lunge at the net in the doubles match and was unable to serve properly or plant her foot for ground strokes against Sukova.

“After the match, she came over to me and said ‘I am sorry about the knee,’ ” he said. According to West German reporters, what she actually said in German was, “Daddy, Daddy, (I) hurt my knee.”

And so the year’s first major tennis title went to the blonde from Bruhl, who may be so unbeatable that she can’t lose, even when she is hurt.

Graf made just 55% of her first serves, which wasn’t much different from her 57% mark in the semifinal with Gabriela Sabatini.

But Graf seemed more vulnerable than usual to an aggressive attack and made a number of uncharacteristic errors from the baseline.

“I don’t think I was playing too well, but I was playing all right,” she said. “I am happy winning, 6-4, 6-4, whatever comes out. I cannot do any different.”

Sukova tried to unnerve Graf with a pressure game. She usually came in behind her serves to force Graf to hit winners, which would have been sound strategy if Sukova’s service was consistent.

But Sukova, who had 6 double faults, wasn’t up to beating the No. 1 player in the world and shrugged off the defeat.

“Look at her last year,” Sukova said. “No player is ever 100% all the time and she still lost only 3 matches. Even when she was not playing 100%, she was still winning.”

This time was no different.

Sukova made 2 first serves in the 9th game of the first set and was broken on the second when she hit a forehand volley long.

Graf served out the set at 15, then broke Sukova in the first game of the second set during which Sukova double-faulted twice.

Graf broke her again in the third game, one which was typical of Sukova’s erratic service. After Sukova served an ace to go ahead 30-15, she double-faulted on the next point, missed a backhand volley to 30-40 and then watched as Graf hit a running forehand winner down the line to go up 3-0.

Sukova had one last chance. Graf, who was serving for the match at 5-2, suddenly began to struggle.

“I should have closed it out a little earlier,” Graf said.

Sukova blew 4 break point opportunities--3 of them on her own errors and 2 of those on simple returns. But on the fifth break point, Sukova rifled a forehand passing shot for a winner and stayed in the match at 5-3.

Sukova, who made only 45% of her first serves, hit just 13 winners to Graf’s 29.

“I was starting to make her worry about the match, but obviously I started a little too late.”

Down 2 match points in the 9th game, Sukova’s big serve finally appeared. Three crisp service winners later, Sukova had held serve to bring her within 5-4. But Graf wrapped it up on the next match-point opportunity she got.

At 15-15, Graf ripped a forehand winner cross court. At 30-15, Sukova popped up a forehand volley long. Then on match point, with Sukova coming in one last time, Graf ripped a forehand passing shot for a clean, cold winner.

Afterward, Graf accepted a stuffed koala, a check for $135,000 and a nod from her father.

In 12 days, she had lost just 24 games in 7 matches and spent exactly 6 hours on the court.

The Australian Open victory was her 31st career title, and her match record since the beginning of 1986 is unequaled: 218-11.

Graf, who has been a finalist in her last 8 Grand Slam tournaments, stopped short of saying she was out to win all 4 of them again this year.

“I don’t want to hear that question after every match,” she said. “Last year, I heard it all the time. It’s so difficult, almost impossible. All I can say is that I won this one, and it’s a good start for the year.”

Since losing to Hana Mandlikova in the 1986 French Open, Graf has been defeated by only 3 players: 4 times by Navratilova, twice by Sabatini and once by Pam Shriver.

Sukova, the No. 5 player in the world, said she will better prepared the next time she plays Graf.

“I’m not saying for sure I’m going to beat her the next time I play her, but for sure, I’ll be coming in with more confidence,” Sukova said.

And the others? Can anybody beat Steffi Graf?

“You know, they are going to know my game better and better each time,” Graf said. “Maybe this tournament looked easy because I didn’t lose a set. But things came really out perfectly. You never know what’s going to happen in the next one.”

Australian Open Notes

Southern Californians Rick Leach and Jim Pugh won their second consecutive Australian Open doubles title Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Mark Kratzmann and Darren Cahill of Australia. Leach and Pugh, who won doubles titles at 7 tournaments and the Nabisco Masters in their first full year together, said they understood why they are not on the U.S. Davis Cup team, which plays Paraguay next weekend at Ft. Myers, Fla. Davis Cup Captain Tom Gorman chose veterans Ken Flach and Robert Seguso. “They’ve got so much experience,” Leach said. “If we keep winning, we’ll play. Gorman said if they lose a couple of matches or we continue to play well, we’ll be with the team.”

GRAF’S GRAND SLAM STREAK

Steffi Graf and her 5 consecutive Grand Slam victories:

Tournament Site Date Opponent,Score Australian Open Melbourne Jan. 23, 1988 def. Chris Evert, 6-1, 7-6 French Open Paris June 4, 1988 def. Natalia Zvereva, 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon Wimbledon July 2, 1988 def. Martina Navratilova, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 U.S. Open New York Sept. 10, 1988 def. Gabriela Sabatini, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 Australian Open Melbourne Jan. 28, 1989 def. Helena Sukova, 6-4, 6-4