Graf: top athlete

Steffi Graf, the runaway choice Monday as The Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for 1989, made a lot more money than the male winner, Joe Montana, without all the bruises.

Graf captured the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open, plus 11 other tournaments, while winning 83 of 85 matches last year. That brought in a tidy $1.96 million, not counting endorsements, compared with Montana’s salary of $1.2 million for the Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers.

Graf’s only losses came in three-set finals at the French Open against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and at Amelia Island against Gabriela Sabatini.

Graf swept the four Grand Slam events—the Australian, French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open—in 1988 and added an Olympic gold medal, but lost out in the Female Athlete of the Year voting to sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner.