Retour
Steffi Graf's brother, Michael, has posted on Facebook that he is hiding in tunnels and on the run from police in Las Vegas.
The brother of the 22-time Grand Slam winner has been living in tunnels under Las Vegas while a warrant is out for his arrest after failing to appear at a hearing in Nevada for violating court conditions over a criminal misdemeanor charge of trespassing.
On March 12, Graf was arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in Boulder City before being hit with a bench warrant in Nevada on March 26 for failing to appear in court.
It's unclear how long the 55-year-old has been in the tunnels after previously being said to be living in a tent at Lake Mead near the city.
The network of tunnels was originally developed as a flood protection system and drainage network, though they have since been used as shelter by thousands of homeless people.
Graf posted multiple disturbing videos on Facebook of himself rambling to the camera as he sat looking disheveled in front of a wall of graffiti.
In one of the streams, a shopping trolley can be seen in the background, which is widely speculated to be full of his belongings.
Meanwhile, during one of the clips, he made some shocking claims about his sister's husband and fellow tennis icon, Andre Agassi, disclosing the physical altercation he once had with him.
Graf suggested Agassi “enjoyed hitting me as hard as he could," before saying: "I mean, that’s understandable. I just kept pushing all sorts of buttons.
"I just thought to myself: What the hell, another idiot? I don’t mean to say that her partners are idiots, but I just thought… no, no, no! I mean, I really gave him a good whack. It was like… a real pirate move.”
He also added that he “pinched” Agassi’s nipples because “he wasn’t wearing his pirate earrings anymore.”
Graf, who moved to Las Vegas with his children at the same time as Steffi and Agassi around 2001, started posting the videos after he got into some serious legal trouble earlier in the year.
She has always done her best to support her brother, including after he was arrested for one of his violent outbursts in 2020. Steffi bought him a house, sought legal guardianship, and financed his lawyers.
Graf became one of the sport's most iconic figures during an illustrious career, and remains the only player to win a 'Golden Slam', doing so in 1988.
That is complete when a player wins all four majors and an Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. She also impressively holds the WTA record for the longest time as world No. 1 (377 weeks), with no other player coming close to breaking that record.