"Princess Diana & I played once together, she told me her son was going to pick up tennis"- When Steffi Graf was ready to give lessons to Royal family
Steffi Graf once spoke about being open to giving tennis lessons to Princess Diana and Prince William. This was said in 1991, when the German won that year's Wimbledon Championships.
Graf entered the grass-court Major as the top seed following Monica Seles' withdrawal. The German went on to book her place in the final of Wimbledon 1991 with straight-set wins over Sabine Appelmans, Mareen Louie Hamper, Yayuk Basuki, 14th seed Amy Frazier, seventh seed Zina Garrison and fifth seed Mary Joe Fernandez.
Here, she faced Gabriela Sabatini and won the first set 6-4 but the Argentine bounced back to take the second set 6-3 and force the match into a decider. Graf eventually edged out Sabatini in the final set to register a 6-4, 3-6, 8-6 win and clinch the women's singles title at Wimbledon 1991 in front of a crowd that included British royalty in Princess Diana and Prince William.
Graf said that she and Princess Diana had played tennis together before and that she was willing to give her and her son lessons if they wanted it.
"She told me a few days ago she was going to come. We played once before together, and she told me that her son was going to pick up tennis, too. So I said that, yes, if they wanted I would sure like to do it," Graf said, as quoted by the New York Times.
Victory at Wimbledon in 1991 meant that Steffi Graf won her 10th Grand Slam singles title.
Steffi Graf's 1991 Wimbledon triumph made her the youngest player to win 10 Grand Slam singles titles
Steffi Graf, who was less than a month over 22 years old, became the youngest player in tennis history to win ten Grand Slam singles titles, surpassing Margaret Court, who was a few months shy of turning 23 when she won her tenth singles Major at the 1965 Australian Open.
To date, no player has been able to attain their tenth Grand Slam at an age younger than Steffi Graf. The 1991 Wimbledon Championships was also the German's first Grand Slam in 18 months.
Graf went on to win the grass court Major another four times in 1992, 1993, 1995 and 1996. Her last appearance at Wimbledon came in 1999, when she was the second seed. She reached the final following wins over L'udmila Cervanova, Mariaan de Swardt, Corina Morariu, Kim Clijsters, sixth seed Venus Williams and Mirjana Lucic.
The German faced third seed Lindsay Davenport in the final, and the American won 6-4, 7-5 to win her second Grand Slam singles title. Shortly after this, Graf announced her retirement from tennis with 22 singles Majors to her name.