Steffi Graf is the greatest player of all time. She won 22 GS singles titles. She won 107 singles titles. Against Monica Seles, these are the facts. Prior to the stabbing, a dreadful day in the history of sport, Graf was leading the head-to-head 6-4. At that point, Seles led 3-2 on Clay. It was 1-0 Graf on indoor courts, 2-0 Graf on grass and 1-1 on hard courts. In 1991, the year in which Monica reached the summit of the rankings in March, the two met twice. That was a year in which Graf was very inconsistent and was losing regularly to Sabatini, for example...5 times she lost to her. That was also the year in which she lost in the French semis to Sanchez 6-0 6-2. Still, in the two matches they played - one on clay and one on hard court, Steffi Graf beat Seles twice in straight sets. In 1992, Monica's best year, the met twice more. Graf missed the Australian in January which Seles won. Monica squeezed out a win at the French 1008 in the third. Clearly that match could have gone either way. A month later at Wimbledon, Graf won 6-2 6-1 in the final...a hammering. Again, that was a year of inconsistency for Graf and she lost to players she'd normally be beating easily. That is to take nothing away from Monica Seles who deserved to be number 1 at year's end. In 1993, Seles won a classic match in the final in Australia when both were at their best. Who knows what would have happened during the rest of 1993? Graf was only 1 slam win away from regaining the number 1 ranking. The point is, that every player has periods in their careers when they are not at their best. Graf was inconsistent in '91-'92 yet still beat Seles 3 times in 4 matches. In 1993 it was up for grabs. The unfortunate incident in April 1993 robbed us of perhaps tennis' greatest rivalry. That said, Seles did come back - and strongly too. The two met again the the US Open final of 1995. Both played their best tennnis and Graf won in three sets. The first set was the most competitive set of tennis I've ever had the privilege of seeing. The two commentators said this...for me, that was the best women's match I've ever seen and the other replied amen. Graf won again in 1996 in the US Open final. They met again in the WTA tour championships in New Yorkk in 1998 and Graf won 1-6 6-4 6-4 - a brilliant match with Seles, as the scoreline suggests, hitting winners for fun in the first set. Graf was just better. Seles won again in Australia in January 1999. Graf won their last match at the French in 1999 in three sets. Overall it's like this... head-to head Graf leads 2-0 on grass, Graf leads 3-2 on hard courts, Graf leads 2-0 on indoor courts and it's 3-3 on clay. Look, even if you took from Graf every slam she won while Monica Seles was off the tour and gave them all to Seles (how ridiculous), Steffi Graf would still have 3 more than Monica Seles. Add the fact that Graf has missed a lot of time on court because of injury in her career too. She missed over the years, 1 wimbledon, 1 French, 1 US Open and 4 Australian championships and innumerable other tournaments. There's 7 slams she'd have had a very big chance of winning. In '97-'98 she missed more than a year because of two knee surgeries. At the tail end of 1998 when she had worked her way back onto tour, she beat Hingis, Davenport and Seles in consecutive matches in Philadelphia and New York. In Paris in 1999, she did it again in the order Seles, Davenport and Hingis at the French Open. She knocked off the world's top three players in consecutive matches in a Slam. That is unique. No matter how you slice it, Graf wins when it comes to number crunching. But that just misses the point anyway...that Steffi Graf was simply a better player than Monica Seles. Monica had the best returns in the history of the game, granted, and she was tough mentally. Graf had the single best shot in the history of the game and the best serve at the time. She also had a brilliant sliced backhand which enabled her to absorb the power of Seles' groundstrokes and to move her about the court and exposer her relatively poor athleticism. And that's why Graf was better - she was the best athlete the game has ever seen. That's why she won two out of every three times they met. Mentally, you can toss a coin. Steffi Graf beat the best of all time because she was the best of alll time.