"I never felt a desire or need to intimidate anybody, it was just my personality"- When Steffi Graf spoke about her relationship with her peers

Steffi Graf believed that she never felt the desire to intimidate any of her opponents throughout her career and that people mistook her personality for an attempt at intimidation.

The German is among the greatest tennis players of all time and won 22 Grand Slams throughout her illustrious career.

When asked about her relationship with her fellow tennis players in an interview in 2000, Graf explained that she never made friends on the tour easily due to her shy nature and her focus on tennis.

"There are a few parts to the answer. The first has to do with how shy I was at the beginning of my career. I just didn't make friends very easily. And then, to me, tennis was always about the playing. I loved the playing and I loved the training," Steffi Graf said.

"I enjoy performing before a crowd, even though you wouldn't know it from my face or my body language. I took the game the only way I knew how, seriously, and it wasn't in my personality to be smiling on the court or getting involved with the crowd," she added.

The former World No. 1 also said that she never felt the desire to intimidate any of her opponents or that she couldn't be friends with another player because she had to compete with her.

"One thing that annoys me is the common assumption that I chose to be aloof from the other players so I would be intimidating, or that I needed to keep my distance because I was competing against them. To me, a match was always just a match. Nothing more, nothing less. Never in my life did I feel I couldn't be friendly with another player because I had to compete against her," Graf expressed.

"I never felt a desire or need to intimidate anybody. I was never standoffish for professional reasons. It was just my personality at the start. Later it was the need to get away from the game when I wasn't actually playing, because I was putting so much of my energy into it," she added.

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"I think it created great turmoil and confusion" - Steffi Graf on Monica Seles' stabbing incident

Steffi Graf in action at Wimbledon in 1995

When asked about Monica Seles' stabbing incident during the same interview, Steffi Graf said that she met her rival in the hospital and made an effort to speak with her. The German also said that she felt horrible about the incident because a fan of hers did that to Seles.

"I did make an effort to talk to her after that morning in the hospital. And I understand how awful it was for Monica to go through that. I think it created great turmoil and confusion. And I really felt horrible, knowing that some fan of mine did that to her. It was a devastating blow," Graf said.

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