Discouraged by Comeback, Graf Hints at Retirement

Beset yet again by injuries and tired of leading her life as a patient, Steffi Graf can envision leaving tennis soon, ending one of the great careers in sports.

“I’ve come to the point where I can see clearly the end of my career because I have the feeling that I am not making any progress,” Graf said in the German magazine Focus.

“I will prepare carefully for the next attempt. But if I can’t establish any continuity in my practice or tournament schedule, I will give up. I’ve had enough of turning in circles.”

The 28-year-old German withdrew during the weekend from the Italian Open, German Open and French Open, the three major events of the clay-court season, after injuring herself in practice. An inflamed membrane covers the bone in her right ankle.

“I’ve been going up and down constantly for the past two years,” she said. “Every time I struggle to reach my old form after an injury, another injury throws me back into the role of a patient. I can’t let my life be governed by therapies and treatments. There can’t be any new injuries.”

Graf had also been sidelined since March because of a left hamstring injury sustained during a semifinal match against Lindsay Davenport at Indian Wells. That was only Graf’s second tournament in nine months.

She said her dream was to “play once more a good tournament in Wimbledon, eat a bowl of strawberries and then say adieu to tennis.”

Graf, who has dominated women’s tennis the past decade, has been attempting a comeback since reconstructive surgery on her left knee after last year’s French Open.