Steffi & Monica: The Greatest Rivalry That Never Was

JHughes Productions
  • 3.5 (2)
  • TENNIS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

A narrative tennis podcast about the unfinished rivalry between Steffi Graf and Monica Seles. Using deep, obsessively researched storytelling, we follow their childhoods, parents, early tournaments, Grand Slam successes, the 1993 Hamburg stabbing, media pressure, and GOAT debates. For fans of women’s tennis, WTA history, 80s/90s tennis, Graf and Seles, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Serena Williams – and anyone who loves long-form sports stories, psychology, and what-if seasons. Subcribers: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/matt022/subscribe

Episodes

  1. 2D AGO

    8 - Lipton 1987: When Steffi Crushed Martina and Chris

    Steffi Graf arrives at the 1987 Lipton as “the future” and leaves having crushed both queens of the game. In this episode, we pick up after her heartbreaking 1986 US Open semi vs Martina Navratilova, track her rise to No. 2 over Chris Evert, and then walk through 1987 Key Biscayne: the windy beatdown of Navratilova in the semis and the 6–1, 6–2 dismantling of Evert in her home state. Was this the week women’s tennis unofficially changed hands?

    29 min

  2. 5D AGO

    7 - Peter Graf: Signals From the Stands

    From basement drills in Brühl to center court at Amelia Island, Steffi Graf’s rise wasn’t a solo act—and it definitely wasn’t quiet. In this episode, we zoom in on Peter Graf: the restless figure pacing the stands, flashing “support” signals, arguing with officials, and clashing with the press long before tax scandals and tabloid headlines. We follow Peter and his growing friction with journalists, and the way his courtside behavior finally spills over at Amelia Island, where Steffi faces Claudia Kohde-Kilsch for the title. If you’re interested in the line between devoted tennis parent and disruptive sideline presence, this is the episode where we put Peter in the spotlight.

    20 min

  3. 12/31/2025

    6 - Forty-Seven Attempts: Steffi's First Title

    Before Steffi Graf became a 22-time Grand Slam champion, she was a teenager grinding through Futures events, qualifiers, and lonely early-round losses. In this episode, we zoom in on the moment everything changed: her first WTA Tour title in Hilton Head, 1986, where a 16-year-old Steffi finally breaks through and beats Chris Evert in the final. We follow Steffi from the satellite circuit and junior dominance to the setbacks that almost sent her back to school, the thumb injury in Australia, the “I never want to play on grass again” meltdown, and the Olympic breakthrough in Los Angeles. Then we track her 1985 run of near-misses—constantly running into Evert—and how that all builds toward Hilton Head, where she turns the tables on the queen of the baseline and finally announces herself as a real threat to both Evertand Martina Navratilova.

    32 min

  4. 12/26/2025

    5 - The Kingdom Before the Queens: Evert, Navratilova, and the Lost Heirs

    In this episode of Steffi & Monica: The Greatest Rivalry That Never Was, we hit pause on Graf and Seles and step back into the kingdom they inherited: the long, sprawling era of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. For more than a decade, women’s tennis is basically a two-woman empire. Evert, the icy, error-proof baseline queen, and Navratilova, the explosive lefty serve-and-volleyer, build a rivalry that defines the sport. They win most of the majors, meet in 14 Slam finals, and become the template every little girl with a racket grows up watching — including a young Steffi in West Germany and Monica in Yugoslavia. Episode 5 is the story of the queens who ruled before Steffi and Monica, the prodigies like Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger who flared and vanished, and the trap we fall into when we use “quality of competition” to erase what women actually did against the fields in front of them. It sets the stage for what comes next: Steffi’s first title, Monica’s arrival, and a rivalry that should have changed everything.

    22 min

  5. 12/23/2025

    4 - Bumpers to Boca: Monica Before the Tour

    In this episode, we follow Monica Seles from a Hungarian-speaking family in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, all the way to her first big-stage appearance at the 1988 Virginia Slims of Florida in Boca Raton—her early life before Grand Slams, before world No. 1, before the headlines. We trace how her father, Károly Seles, an Olympic-caliber triple jumper turned cartoonist, turned a cracked parking lot into a homemade tennis court, sketching flipbook cartoons to teach her strokes while neighbors complained about scuff marks on their cars; how Monica’s obsession with hitting “just a few more balls” led from local courts to the Orange Bowl and then a scholarship at Nick Bollettieri’s Florida academy, where she quickly became one of his most unusual and feared young talents. The episode builds to Boca Raton: a 14-year-old Monica Seles earning a wildcard into the main draw and facing her childhood idol, Chris Evert. Along the way, we draw parallels to Steffi Graf’s own childhood, showing how two shy, fiercely focused girls with driven fathers and worried mothers were quietly being shaped into the forces that would one day challenge the Evert–Navratilova era.

    24 min

  6. 12/19/2025

    3- Hundreds Like Her: Steffi Before the Tour

    Before Steffi Graf was a Grand Slam legend, she was a shy German kid smashing lamps in her parents’ living room and grinding on cold club courts. In this episode, we follow Steffi from basement practices with her dad in Mannheim and early junior heartbreak at the Sport Scheck tournament in Munich, to her brutal training days in Leimen alongside a young Boris Becker and her first pro match against Tracy Austin in Filderstadt—complete with the now-famous “hundreds like her” quote that seriously aged badly. If you love women’s tennis history, German tennis, or just want to know how a future No. 1 is built long before the WTA rankings ever notice, this deep dive into Steffi’s pre-tour years is for you.

    18 min

  7. 12/17/2025

    2- The Salesman and the Artist

    Steffi Graf and Monica Seles didn’t become legends alone. In this episode, we go inside the Graf and Seles families: Peter and Heidi in Mannheim, Karolj and Ester in Novi Sad. A hard-driving car-and-insurance salesman and a creative cartoonist/PE teacher each decide tennis is their child’s ticket out. We trace how two very different parents, cultures and childhoods helped forge two of the fiercest champions in tennis history—and set the stage for the Graf–Seles rivalry that would change women’s tennis forever.

    23 min

  8. 12/16/2025

    1 - Different Worlds

    In our debut episode, we rewind to the late 1960s and ’70s and drop in on two very different childhoods: Steffi Graf growing up in postwar West Germany and Monica Seles in socialist Yugoslavia. As women’s tennis explodes into the Open Era—with Billie Jean King, the “Original 9,” the Battle of the Sexes, and the Nikola Pilić boycott reshaping the sport—we trace how this new world of money, power, and politics quietly sets the stage for the Graf–Seles rivalry that would change tennis history.

    16 min

  9. TRAILER

    Trailer - Two Champions, One Unfinished Story

    Two women’s tennis legends. One rivalry cut short by a deranged tennis fan. In this narrative podcast, host Josh Hughes sets up the stage for the unfinished story of the tennis rivalry between Steffi Graf and Monica Seles. Episode by episode, we revisit 80s/90s WTA history, reimagine the missing Graf–Seles seasons, and ask: what if the greatest rivalry in women’s tennis had been allowed to play out?

    3 min

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

3.5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

A narrative tennis podcast about the unfinished rivalry between Steffi Graf and Monica Seles. Using deep, obsessively researched storytelling, we follow their childhoods, parents, early tournaments, Grand Slam successes, the 1993 Hamburg stabbing, media pressure, and GOAT debates. For fans of women’s tennis, WTA history, 80s/90s tennis, Graf and Seles, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Serena Williams – and anyone who loves long-form sports stories, psychology, and what-if seasons. Subcribers: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/matt022/subscribe

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