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Steffi Graf once beat Pam Shriver at the US Open when she was just 16 years old.
The year was 1985 and Graf appeared for the second time at the New York Major, seeded 11th. The German reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time after defeating Patty Wendyck, Ann Minter, Ann White and eighth seed Manuela Malieva.
Here, she was against fourth seed Pam Shriver. Graf won the first set via a tiebreak before the American took the second in similar fashion to force the match into a tiebreaker. The final set also went to a tie-break like the other two, and Graf won 7–4 to book her place in the Grand Slam semi-finals for the first time in her career.
After the match, Pam Shriver said that she couldn’t have done better and that she didn’t put in such an effort only to end up on the losing side.
“I think it was one of the most incredible matches I’ve ever been in. My effort couldn’t have been more, but it was two points less. I don’t think I’ve ever put in that kind of effort and lost,” Shriver said.
Steffi Graf expressed her happiness at winning the match and reaching the semi-finals.
”I am very happy now. I don’t think I know now that I won and I’m in the semi-finals.”
She faced German second seed Martina Navratilova in the semi-finals and lost 6-2, 6-3. Navratilova, however, would lose the final 7-6(3), 1-6, 7-6(2) to Hana Mandlikova.
Steffi Graf won 9 out of 12 matches against Pam Shriver
Steffi Graf and Pam Shriver have met each other on 12 occasions, with the German leading 9-3 in the head-to-head encounter.
The first meeting between them came in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 1985, where America won 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Six of the 12 meetings between Graf and Shriver have come at Grand Slams and the former has won five of them.
The two have never locked in a final, but have faced each other in six semi-final matches. The last meeting between them came in the second round of the Virginia Slims Championship from Philadelphia in 1993, and Steffi Graf won 6-1, 6-3. She reached the final of the tournament before being beaten 6-3 6-3 by Conchita Martinez.
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