Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground” — Steffi Graf quoted the US President Theodore Roosevelt, when speaking to 700-odd students Arsenal jersey 2015 of a South Mumbai school, as she balanced her celestial presence among star-struck teenagers sprinkling it with some practical advice about studies and books.
“Since we were all students, I guess, she consistently tried to emphasise on the fact that we balance between our sporting passion and our education. She repeatedly told us that studies are essential. She even quoted Theodore Roosevelt,” a student present at the private gathering, said.
“How was your transition from tennis to retirement?” another teenaged member of the audience is known to have asked breathlessly to the tennis goddess on her maiden visit to India as she lit up the stage at the Nehru Centre, Worli, on Tuesday.
The students, all in the 12-18 age bracket were in the midst of tennis’ divinity, perhaps the greatest known female athlete of the last few decades, but the fact that she’d retired 15 years ago (meaning half the crowd wasn’t even born when she stopped) didn’t dent any of the aura she brought to the discussion. Dressed in a maroon shirt tucked smartly into white pants, with her golden tresses flowing, what the students found most striking about the 22-time Grand Slam champion was her ramrod posture and the legendary poise as she answered chirpy posers candidly.
“Graf even spoke of her children and how she does not want to impose tennis upon them,” the student recalls. “She said ‘As a mother I do not want to impose tennis on my children. While my daughter enjoys hip-hop and is passionate about it, my son is playing baseball in a league.
“I got the impression she balances everything well and seems to have everything in control,” the student gushed. Her candour extended to a host of topics, including her most embarrassing moment as she also chuckled about the obsession of cricket in India. Graf had earlier in the day posed in front of the Taj at Agra, and flew down to Mumbai before heading back early on Wednesday at 3 am.
Responding to one of the questions, Graf apparently said that she’d been very tired towards the end of her career but was never completely disconnected from the sport that she started playing from the age of 3. Quite unprompted, she proceeded Real Madrid James jersey to speak of her meeting with her Authentic Manchester united jersey future husbad Andre Agassi. “She spoke briefly, but adoringly of Agassi. She said, ‘We are two different people’, but then told us how meeting him towards the end of her career had positively changed her life,” the student recalled.
Vijay Amritraj who moderated Chelsea jersey 2014 2015 the discussion, bridged the two most fascinating parts of her life-story — as a pro player and as one half of tennis’ much-adored couple, for the benefit of the students. “Stef and I go back a long way. She is one of the most delightful people I’ve met, a remarkable person and an incredible inspiration even post continued…
