Peter Graf - obituary

Peter Graf, who has died aged 75, was the tempestuous father – and former coach, manager and chaperone – of the German world tennis champion Steffi Graf, who won 22 Grand Slam singles titles , including seven at Wimbledon.

So closely did Graf control his daughter that he earned the nickname “Papa Merciless” for driving her relentlessly from a young age. But after he had been a constant presence during her climb to the sport’s heights, the pair fell out when he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison in 1997, having being convicted of tax evasion on nearly £5 million of her earnings. He was released after serving almost half his sentence.

Peter Graf was one of a small band of tennis fathers to join what some commentators call the “ugly parent” syndrome. Others included “Mad Mike” Agassi, whose infamous home-made machine (known as “the dragon”) served tennis balls at 110mph at his seven-year-old son, Andre (no doubt instilling in the boy both the skills to become one of the greats of tennis and his avowed hatred of the game).

Dubbed “the German Mike Agassi”, Graf controlled with an iron fist Steffi’s tournament and practice schedule, as well as her finances, and even her sleeping and waking hours.

Yet he reportedly had problems with alcohol, gambling and sleeping pills. There was also the question of his thunderflash temper, which he regularly unleashed on match officials, sometimes from his seat in the stands where he would also (illegally) signal coaching advice to his daughter on court.

Disappointed and angry if she played badly or failed to try hard enough in training, he more than once slapped her face in frustration as he delivered a public dressing down. For years, Peter Graf also rejected financial advice. Players and coaches recalled seeing him with paper carrier bags into which he stuffed thousands of dollars in tournament money.

^{Peter and Heidi Graf with Steffi after she won Wimbledon in 1991 (GETTY)}

Nor did he appear to be chastened by his spell in prison: when his daughter announced that she was going to marry Andre Agassi, Peter Graf confronted Mike Agassi, eventually stripping off his shirt and squaring up to him until Andre separated the two men.

The son of a German sports official, Peter Graf was born in Mannheim on June 18 1938 and educated at the Karl Friedrich Gymnasium, from which he dropped out to become a talented amateur footballer. His mother’s suicide had blighted his teenage years, and when his dreams of becoming a professional sportsman evaporated, he channelled his ambitions into turning Stefanie into the world’s best tennis player.

By the late 1960s he was working as a second-hand car and insurance salesman as well as a part-time tennis coach, teaching his three-year-old daughter, who had shown amazing co-ordination, how to swing a cut-down wooden racket in the family’s living room and spending hours hitting a ball with her. When she made a successful return she would often be rewarded with ice cream and strawberries.

Steffi began practising on a court at the age of four; played in her first tournament at five; and a year later won her first title. When she was eight, Graf gave up his job to devote himself full-time to her career. He signed her first professional contract when she was 13, the year she won the German under-18 championship.

Other high-profile German sporting figures sought to minimise their tax liabilities by moving to other countries, but as his daughter’s earnings rose Peter Graf stayed put, telling a magazine: “I think we can afford the taxes.”

In fact, he set up offshore corporations, took huge payments in cash and for several years signed double contracts to conceal large sums of Steffi’s income and avoid paying tax on his daughter’s multi-million-dollar income. For four years, between 1989 and 1993, she filed no returns at all, failed to declare £16 million in income and did not pay £8 million she owed in German taxes alone.

She always denied she knew anything about her finances, her failure to file tax returns and declare the millions of dollars in guarantees she allegedly received, against World Tennis Association rules. One German tournament director recalled how “Papa” Graf came to his office and said: “I did not know the finals were on a Sunday. You know we’re on our way to LA and Steffi can’t possibly play in the finals,” before adding: “She might be able to play if you make it worth our while.”

According to reports, Graf insisted on receiving Steffi’s fees in cash from the German Tennis Federation and other tournament organisers. After two events in Hamburg and Berlin in the early 1990s, he was said to have driven off with £155,555 in plastic bags in the back of his car.

But even as criticism of her father’s authoritarian style grew, Steffi herself remained loyal. “I don’t understand why he is not getting the respect he deserves,” she said.

After his arrest, Graf was criticised for failing to take professional advice about his daughter’s financial affairs. Rumours that he was being treated for alcoholism in prison were officially denied, but his drinking problem was no secret to the German media and he was known to have liver and circulatory problems.

Steffi Graf refused to testify at her father’s trial on the grounds that it might incriminate her. At the end, when the German judge sentenced her father to three years and nine months in prison, less 15 months already served, he refrained from imposing a fine because he said Steffi would have ended up paying, rather than Graf himself.

A more salacious scandal had engulfed Graf in 1990 when a 22-year-old former Playboy topless model, Nicole Meissner, filed a paternity suit against him, claiming that he had paid her and a boxing promoter $424,000 to drop the action. Meissner was eventually jailed for two years for blackmail, and blood tests proved that Graf was not the father.

Latterly Graf, who had been coaching foreign tennis players, had apparently repaired his relationship with his daughter.

Peter Graf and his wife, Heidi, divorced in 1999. In August of that year he married Britta, an optician from Mannheim 20 years his junior, and Steffi’s one-time babysitter .

He is survived by Steffi and by his son, Michael.

Peter Graf, born June 18 1938, died December 1 2013