It was such a mobilizing thing that I decided to get involved. - Steffi Graf

It’s clear that the new generations grow up with them as a given, but to be communicating all the time, it’s almost obligation to do so… It becomes more difficult to stay focused on the essential, to have balance.

There were less peaceful times in my environment, but I always had a lot of support. You get close to people who think like you, who have similar values, and you learn to recognize and identify those people. Tennis meant that I was surrounded by a lot of people and developed good radar to identify who was who.

It was not a decision I had to make, but something that reflected my personality. Basically, I had little interest in exposing myself, when I played my privacy was very important to me. It may have something to do with why I came to the fore at a very young age.