Steff Grafi's Papa Merciless was the original tennis dad

NO tennis dad was more infamous than Peter Graf, or "Papa Merciless" as he was dubbed by the press for the control he exerted over his all-conquering daughter, Steffi.

Peter Graf and Steffi Graf

AT best overbearing, at worst tyrannical, the tennis dad became a stock character as the sport grew more lucrative and pressurised in the Open era. None was more infamous than Peter Graf, or "Papa Merciless" as he was dubbed by the press for the control he exerted over his all-conquering daughter.

Graf was the father, coach and manager of Steffi Graf, the former world No 1 and winner of 22 grand-slam singles titles between 1987 and 1999. He kept a belligerent grip on her career and personal life and was sent to prison after a high-profile tax evasion case.

Peter Graf was born in 1938 in Mannheim, southwest Germany. He was a talented amateur footballer who sold insurance and second-hand cars to GIs. His own sporting progress was thwarted by injury but he soon devoted himself to nurturing his daughter's prodigious skills. Graf placed a racquet with a sawn-off handle in Steffi's hands before her fourth birthday. He would reward her with ice cream when she hit a series of balls over the living-room sofa. She was winning tournaments by the age of six and turned professional at 13. Steffi was a model athlete: mature beyond her years and consistently successful. In comparison her father was anarchic and subversive. He allegedly smacked her after training sessions in which she performed badly. He was accused of breaking the rules by coaching from the stands during matches and abusing officials. Stories of his heavy drinking swirled around the circuit. He was reported to have been spotted leaving tournaments with under-the-table appearance money stashed in plastic bags.

With some justification, Peter Graf believed he needed to protect his daughter from the petty resentments of America's tennis establishment as well as the challenges of wealth and celebrity. He put pressure on tournament organisers to schedule day matches for Steffi that would not interfere with her early bedtime. He once issued a warning that she would not attend an awards dinner in New York if she did not receive her player of the year trophy at the beginning rather than the end.

Steffi remained loyal. "He is the one who takes the pressure off me," she told The Washington Post when she was 18. "People do not get angry with me. They get angry with him."

Peter Graf had married Heidi Schalk in 1968. He became a tabloid front-page fixture in 1990 as stories emerged of an affair with a 22-year-old former topless model, Nicole Meissner, who was imprisoned for blackmail after trying to extort money from him by falsely claiming he had fathered her child.

Unlike other German sports stars, Steffi Graf chose to stay in her homeland rather than move to a tax haven. "I think we can afford the taxes," Peter Graf told Sports Illustrated in 1989.

Yet from that year to 1992, no returns were filed on Steffi's behalf. In 1995, Peter Graf was arrested on suspicion of tax evasion. He had used overseas shell companies to hide millions of dollars of his daughter's earnings. He was convicted of tax fraud in 1997 and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. He served 25 months. The court found no evidence of wrongdoing by Steffi, who had evidently entrusted all her financial affairs to her father. Their relationship broke down but they were reportedly reconciled before his death. Heidi and Peter Graf were divorced and in 1999 he married Britta, Steffi's former babysitter and 20 years his junior.

In 2000 Peter Graf met Mike Agassi, the father of the American tennis star Andre Agassi. Steffi married Andre the following year. His father, nicknamed "Mad Mike", had built a machine called "the dragon", which fired tennis balls at 176 km/h at his then seven-year-old son. In Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open, he recalled that when Peter Graf asked to see the contraption, the two fathers began arguing about which of their offspring had the superior backhand technique and almost came to blows.

Graf, who died of cancer, is survived by his daughter and a son, Michael, who works as a television writer in the US.

THE TIMES