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Graf to quit at end of the year

After announcing that she had played her last French Open and final Wimbledon, tennis superstar Steffi Graf has confirmed that this would be her final year on the WTA Tour she has dominated for much of her brilliant career.

''I will be retiring from the Tour,'' Graf told reporters during an informal interview yesterday to promote this week's A and P Classic exhibition tournament, where she is a six-time winner and the defending champion.

The 30-year-old owner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles had not intended to use the forum to announce her retirement. But she has grown tired of constant questions on the subject over the past several weeks and the pestering continued on Monday.

''It's difficult to listen to every day. I just enjoy playing,'' she said.

The retirement questions were inevitable after her surprise pronouncement that she had played her final French Open following her stirring triumph over Martina Hingis in the final. After falling to Lindsay Davenport in the Wimbledon final this month she also declared it her last visit to the all-England club as a player.

Graf will play her 54th and final major championship at the US Open, where the only fitting ending will see her battling for her sixth title at Flushing Meadows on the final weekend in mid-September.

''You always want to go out of a sport when you are on top. It's the ideal situation,'' said Graf, of the place where she has spent virtually her entire career.

The decision to call it quits is rarely an easy one for a great champion.

''It's hard to part from what you love so much,'' she said. ''I always gave it as much as I had.''

Even if she fails to go out on a winning note at the US Open, the longtime former world No 1 will leave the women's game as the player many consider to be the greatest of all time.

Much was made of Andre Agassi becoming only the fifth man to win all four Grand Slam titles in his career when he won the French this year. Graf has won them all at least four times, the only player in history, male or female, to achieve that feat.

Graf joined the most elite of tennis clubs in 1988 at age 19 when she completed a sweep of the four majors in one calendar year. She added an Olympic gold medal that year to make it an unprecedented ''Golden Slam.''

In all, Graf owns seven Wimbledon crowns, six French Opens, five US Open titles and four Australian Open championships.

The sweetest of all may just turn out to be the last one -- the unexpected victory this year at Roland Garros, where Graf went with only the hope of getting her game together in time for Wimbledon.

''It's difficult to put into words what I achieved in those two weeks, a whole lot more than I expected or dreamed,'' Graf enthused.

''The highlight was the way I played the last three matches in Paris, beating number one, two and three,'' said Graf, who dispatched Davenport (2), Monica Seles (3) and Hingis (1) in a memorable final week on the red clay where she claimed her first major title in 1987.

Graf insisted it was not the long list of injuries that has dogged her career over the past few years, nor a loss of passion for the game that brought her to this crossroad, but rather the grind of of the tour that has been her life for the past 17 years.

''I'm not so tired of the game, I look forward to hitting the ball. I still love it,'' she said. ''But the game is very demanding with all the travelling from one tournament to the next.''

Graf said she will still play exhibitions after this year but her travel itinerary will change drastically.

''I will retire from the tour, but I still plan to play tennis, enjoy it, play in countries I have never been to,'' she said.

''I don't plan to disappear.''

UNI