Peter Graf
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Peter Graf is the father of the German tennis star Steffi Graf. He introduced her to the game as a child and managed her career for several years. However in the 1990s scandals involving a Playboy model and the German tax authorities made Peter more a distraction than a help to Steffi's game, and ended up with Peter being jailed for tax evasion.
When Steffi was born in 1969, Peter was a car and insurance salesman with aspirations of being a tennis coach. He introduced his daughter to the game when she was three years old, starting out by teaching her to swing a wooden racket in the family's living room before progressing to practising on courts. Steffi soon began winning junior tournaments with regularity. In 1982 she won the European Championships 12s and 18s, and then turned professional at the age of 13.
Peter carefully managed Steffi's career, limiting the number of tournaments she entered during her first few years on the tour, organizing an intense practice routine, and keeping her away from most of the tour's social events. This approach is thought to be one of the reasons why Steffi did not 'burn-out' in the way many other young tennis stars have over the years. Steffi made her Grand Slam breakthrough in 1987 when she won the French Open. The following year she became the first player ever to achieve the so-called "Golden Slam" by winning all four Grand Slam titles and the Olympic Gold Medal.
In 1990, scandal hit the Graf family when a German tabloid newspaper published stories about an affair between Peter and a nude model 30 years younger than him, who accused him of fathering her child and brought a paternity suit against him. The German press rode the story hard. At Wimbledon that year, Steffi broke down in tears during a press conference in which she was questioned about the scandal. Wimbledon authorities then threatened to immediately shut-down any subsequent press conferences where questions about the issue were asked. Tests eventually proved Peter was not the father. But the scandal certainly affected Steffi who had a much quieter season on the tour that year after two all-conquering years.
In May 1995, Steffi was accused by the German authorities of tax evasion in the early years of her career. In her defence, she said that Peter had been in control of all her financial affairs during that period. Peter admitted that his daughter had known nothing of her own tax matters at that time. The subsequent investigation ended with Peter and a financial adviser, Joachim Eckhardt, both being jailed. Peter was sentenced to 45 months in prison. He was eventually released after serving 25 months. Prosecutors dropped their case against Steffi in 1997, when she agreed to pay a fine of 1.3 million Deutsche Marks to the government and an unspecified charity.
Somehow, through the considerable stress and media intrusion during the trial and its fallout, Steffi still managed to win championships.
