Prince Nelson of the United Kingdom

Nelson Bacall
KBE
Full name	Nelson Frederick Francis Albert Charles
Country (sports)	Great Britain
Born	March 23, 1962 (age 62); London, England
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Turned pro	1980
Retired	2005
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Coach	Pancho Segura
Prize money	$82,263,939; * 4th all-time leader in earnings
Int. Tennis HoF	2006
Singles
Career record	1052-158 (86.95%)
Career titles	115 (1st in the Open Era)
Highest ranking	No. 1 (9 December 1983)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	W (1980, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001)
French Open	W (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005)
Wimbledon	W (1983, 1984, 1989, 1998, 2002)
US Open	W (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1997, 2003)
Tour Finals	W (1985, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2002, 2004)
WCT Finals	W (1983)
Olympic Games	W (1984, 1992, 2000, 2004)
Career record	{{#property:P555}}
Mixed doubles
Career record	36-8 (82.3%)
Career titles	14
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	W (1993, 1997, 1998, 1999)
French Open	W (1992, 1994, 1998, 1999)
Wimbledon	W (1991, 1995, 1999)
US Open	W (1992, 1994, 1999)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (2005)
Medal record
Representing Great Britain
Olympic Games

Prince Nelson (Nelson Frederick Francis Albert Charles; born 23 March 1962), known professionally as Nelson Bacall, is a British former professional tennis player and a member of the British royal family. The youngest of two sons of King Charles III and the American actress Lauren Bacall, Nelson is known for his two-decades-long career in professional tennis during which he amassed a total of 115 titles, the most for a male player, including a record 38 Grand Slam men's singles titles. Having first turned professional in 1980, Nelson's debut saw him win all but one of the four Grand Slam majors in his debut year, a feat that he subsequently followed up on with a complete Grand Slam in 1983 and a second consecutive one in 1984, a year that also saw him become the first of only three players, male or female, alongside Steffi Graf and Maria Sharapova to complete the Golden Slam as the rest of his two-decades-long career seeing him win the Australian Open and the French Open seven further times each, Wimbledon thrice further, and the US Open a further eight times. Moreover, in 1983, Nelson famously defeated the American tennis player John McEnroe to become the only British player to win the WCT Finals prior to its dissolution. Meanwhile, on the international stage, Nelson helped deliver gold for Great Britain in tennis for the first time in decades at the Olympic Games since 1920 and, in 2005, also helped deliver Great Britain's first Davis Cup title in almost seven decades via a memorable 3-2 win over Croatia, a feat that was only repeated a decade later by Andy Murray. As of current, with a total of eleven titles, Nelson currently holds the record for the most titles won at the US Open, while his record of total of ten titles at the Australian Open is shared with Novak Djokovic. In addition, he is also tied with Djokovic for the most ATP Finals won with seven with his final win in 2004 making him the oldest player to have won it at the age of forty-two. At a total of 680 weeks long, Nelson currently holds the record for the most weeks spent as the men's world No. 1 while his wife Steffi Graf, at 502 weeks long, formerly held a similar record for the women's world No. 1 until she was surpassed by Maria Sharapova at 573 weeks long. Meanwhile, together with Rod Laver and Steffi Graf, he is one of only three players in tennis history to have completed the Grand Slam more than once.

In addition to his hugely successful singles career, Nelson also enjoyed much success competing in the doubles, doing so primarily with Steffi Graf. Together, the duo won the Australian Open and the French Open four times each, as well as the US Open and Wimbledon thrice each during which they completed a Grand Slam in 1999, making them only the second mixed doubles pair to do so after Margaret Court and Ken Fletcher in 1963. Considered widely to be the most successful and prolific mixed doubles duo of the Open Era, the two are popularly nicknamed "The Golden Duo" while ESPN dubbed them "The King and Queen of Tennis". Since his retirement in 2005, Nelson has served as the chairman of Great Britain's Lawn Tennis Association as well as the president of The Football Association, a post that he held until 2020. From 2013 to 2018, he temporarily returned to tennis, serving as the coach for Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova, whom he notably helped to a sixth consecutive French Open title, the most for a woman in the singles category, along with one further title each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open respectively, thereby making Sharapova only the second woman and third player overall after himself and Steffi Graf to have won all four Grand Slam majors four times or more.

Considered to be among the greatest professional tennis players in history and, in the eyes of Britons, among the nation's three greatest alongside Fred Perry and Andy Murray, owing to his fast and powerful volleys and his trademark blonde hair, Nelson is popularly nicknamed "The Thunderbolt" by supporters and is considered to be the most successful student of Pancho Segura, his longtime coach and mentor. On 14 June 2000, Nelson married the former German tennis player Steffi Graf, with whom he has four children, and established a hugely successful tennis partnership in the mixed doubles category. In 2006, Nelson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, joining the likes of fellow Britons Fred Perry, Wilfred Baddeley, and Laurence Doherty.

Early Life

Born on 23 March 1962, Nelson was the youngest son and second child of King Charles III and the American actress Lauren Bacall. Christened Nelson Frederick Francis Albert Charles, much like his two siblings, namely older brother Thomas and younger sister Catherine, Nelson was raised directly by his mother within the confines of Buckingham Palace. In this, his given name "Nelson" is said to have been derived from New York governor and Republican politician Nelson Rockefeller, a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family and a close friend of Nelson's father. On his part, Nelson has largely affirmed that he was indeed named after the American politician but has, at times, occasionally suggested that he was also named after the famous Royal Navy admiral Horatio Nelson, a highly decorated British flag officer and hero of the famous Battle of Trafalgar in which the British notably defeated a combined French-Spanish fleet without losing a single ship in the process although Nelson himself was killed during the battle.

Much like his older brother, from an early age, Nelson grew up being immediately and deeply in love with sports with his English ancestry and upbringing naturally translating into a love for football with the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final in London, England being a particularly fond memory for a young Nelson who was only four years old at the time. However, after going through several different types of sports in his youth, Nelson ultimately came to love tennis the most. Later on, Nelson attributed his decision to pursue tennis over football, a sport that he equally loved as a longtime supporter of Manchester United, primarily due to a passionate desire to restore the prestige of British tennis given that at the time of his birth, it had been almost three decades since a Grand Slam title was won by a Brit, namely the late Fred Perry in 1936. In addition, Nelson also cited football's extreme physicality at the time, coupled with him naturally standing out from his non-royal teammates, as to why he never pursued a career in professional football, stating, "Compared to the Premier League era today, football back when I was growing up, even if it had the same rules and fundamentals, was an entirely different game nonetheless where the players were a lot more brutal and physical than those playing today while the rules themselves were arguably laxer and less defined as they are today, meaning that players who are accustomed to what football is today would not survive at all if they go a few decades back".

Career

1980s

In 1980, at the age of eighteen, Nelson, having chosen the alias "Nelson Bacall" for his professional career, turned professional. To that end, in just the first year of his career, Nelson's first Grand Slam title came rather early as he fought his way to the finals of the 1980 French Open where he faced the defending Swedish champion Björn Borg. Soon enough, amidst initial expectations, Nelson went on to comfortably defeat Borg 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6, thereby clenching his first-ever Grand Slam title. However, in the ensuing 1980 Wimbledon Championships, where he also surprisingly made the final, in a rematch against Borg, Nelson was otherwise defeated 7-6, 4-6, 1-6, 2-6, thereby dashing hopes of an initial Grand Slam achievement in just his first year. Regardless, following the temporary Wimbledon blip, Nelson's winning momentum was soon restored as he went on to win both the Suisse Open and Swedish Open respectively, defeating the likes of Heinz Günthardt and Balázs Taróczy for the titles. Then, in the following month of August, Nelson competed in his second Grand Slam third consecutive Grand Slam tournament, namely the 1980 US Open. In this, upon securing his vengeance by eliminating Björn Borg in the semi-finals, Nelson subsequently faced the American tennis star John McEnroe, whom he went on to defeat 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Then, amidst further title successes that year, Nelson ultimately came close to achieving a Grand Slam as he went on to defeat another American tennis star Brian Teacher at the finals of the 1980 Australian Open.

Following his successful debut year, which he promptly supplemented with a successful title defence at the 1981 French Open along with victories at the 1982 French Open and US Open tournaments respectively, in 1983, Nelson, then aged only twenty-one, would achieve his career's biggest success so far, beginning with a third consecutive title at the 1983 French Open where he defeated local Frenchman Yannick Noah 6-1, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Then, in the following month, he faced John McEnroe and defeated him 6-3, 7-6, 6-4, thereby winning his first of five eventual titles at Wimbledon. Following this, at the ensuing US Open, success came against another American opponent, namely Jimmy Connors, whom he defeated 7-5, 7-5, 6-2, thereby leaving only the Australian Open for him to win to achieve a Grand Slam, a goal that he soon fulfilled by defeating the Swedish tennis player Joakim Nyström 5-7, 7-6, 7-5, 6-3, thereby officially making him the first man since Australian tennis legend Rod Laver since 1962, almost two decades prior, to achieve a Grand Slam as well as the first British player to do so, thereby surpassing even the legendary Fred Perry in this regard. However, his Grand Slam heroics soon proved insufficient and, in the following year of 1984, in a similarly remarkable achievement, Nelson went on to successfully defend his title at all four Grand Slam majors, beginning with a 7-6, 6-2, 7-6 victory over Ivan Lendl at the French Open, followed by a tight victory over four sets against John McEnroe at Wimbledon, an almost similar victory against McEnroe that year at the US Open, and ending with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 victory in three sets over Sweden's Mats Wilander, thereby making him the most recent man, also after Laver, to achieve two separate Grand Slams.

Ultimately, following his 1983 Grand Slam heroics and successful title defence the following year, Nelson went on to enjoy some further successes that year, winning the Australian Open and US Open tournaments twice that decade along with another title win at the French Open and Wimbledon each, namely in 1987 and 1989 respectively. Meanwhile, on the international side, Nelson became the first-ever man to historically achieve a Golden Slam following his victory in the finals of the 1984 Summer Olympics over Stefan Edberg, whom he defeated 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 to become the men's singles gold medalist, all while a then-fifteen-year-old Steffi Graf, his future partner and wife, became the women's singles herself by defeating Yugoslavia's Sabrina Goleš in the finals.

1990s

In entering the following decade of the 1990s, Nelson kicked off the new decade with a successful run at the US Open, defeating Pete Sampras 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in the finals that year which also saw the introduction of the modern-day ATP Tour. In that same year, Nelson also clinched his second title at the ATP Finals after his first one in 1985, for which he defeated Andre Agassi 7-6, 7-5, 6-3 to win it. Then, just two years later, a victory over Stefan Edberg in three sets saw Nelson grab his eighth US Open title, a milestone that he wasted no time reinforcing with a successful title defence the following year along with victories at the Australian Open in 1996, 1997, and 1999, for which he defeated Pete Sampras once more, the French Open in 1994, 1996, and 1998, and a long-awaited Wimbledon victory in 1989 over German legend Boris Becker, making it his third overall title at Wimbledon and his first in five years. In addition to this, Nelson also found much success competing in the ATP Finals that decade, winning a total of four times, namely in 1990, 1993, 1994, and 1999, for which he defeated Andre Agassi and Michael Stich once each as well as Pete Sampras twice.

Meanwhile, after having largely stayed out of the doubles category the previous decade for reasons of simplicity, together with his partner and future wife Steffi Graf, Nelson finally branched out into the doubles, namely the mixed doubles category. To that end, in the first year of their decade-long partnership, the two found considerable success, winning the 1991 Wimbledon Championships by defeating the Australian pair of John Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Smylie 7-5, 6-3. In the following year, at the 1992 US Open, during which Graf herself emerged victorious in the women's singles category by defeating her rival Monica Seles, the duo defeated another Australian pair, namely Nicole Bradtke and Mark Woodforde, to emerge victorious. In that same year, at the 1992 French Open, the two also found similar success in the tournament, going all the way to the finals where they later defeated the partnership between Spaniard Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Todd Woodbridge 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Then, in 1993, the year that Graf picked up a third record-breaking Grand Slam by winning all four majors in a single year, the duo also found success at the Australian Open, where they once again faced the Vicario-Woodbridge duo and, like the previous instance, emerged victorious once again, winning by 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

In 1994, just like two years prior, the duo once again found much success, winning both the French Open and US Open that year. For the former, the duo faced the Dutch pair of Kristie Boogert and Menno Oosting, whom they successfully defeated 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in the finals. Meanwhile, for the latter, the duo went on to defeat the pairing between South African Elna Reinach and American Patrick Gailbrath, also by three sets, thereby avenging both their respective defeats in the singles category. Then, following further success at the 1995 Wimbledon Championships, where they faced the American pair of Jonathan Stark and Martina Navratilova, Graf's longtime rival, and the 1997 Australian Open, in 1998, the duo secured a third double glory, for which they faced the American pair of Venus Williams, older sister of fellow tennis star Serena Williams, and Justin Gimelstob, and, on both occasions, emerged victorious, defeating them 6-4, 7-5 in the former and 6-2, 6-1 in the latter. Ultimately, the following year of 1999, which was also the last year of their successful partnership together prior to Graf's subsequent retirement, the duo ultimately made history as the only second mixed doubles pair after Margaret Court and Ken Fletcher to complete a Grand Slam in that category, a feat they began by defeating the South African pair of Mariaan de Swardt and David Adams 6-4, 7-5 at the 1999 Australian Open. Then, at the ensuing 1999 French Open, the duo defeated Russian Katarina Srebotnik and South African Piet Norval by a similar margin of 6-3, 7-5, thereby leaving only two Grand Slam majors left to win. To that end, at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships, the duo faced off against American Lisa Raymond, one of the most accomplished doubles players, and Indian Leander Paes, and, in turn, emerged victorious, winning by 6-1, 7-5. Eventually, at what was also the final match of Graf's career, the duo reached the finals of the 1999 US Open, where they faced Japanese Ai Sugiyama and Indian Mahesh Bhupathi. In the end, the duo needed just two straight sets to make victory, defeating their opponents 7-5, 6-3, thereby becoming the second mixed doubles pair after Margaret Court and Ken Fletcher in 1963 to complete a Grand Slam in that category while their Grand Slam feats in the men's and women's singles categories respectively make them just one of three alongside Margaret Court to have won a Grand Slam in both the singles and mixed doubles categories.

2000s

For the third and final decade of his career, Nelson kicked off the new century somewhat promisingly, beginning with a victory in the finals of the 2000 Australian Open against Andre Agassi, whom he took four sets to ultimately defeat by 6-2, 6-7, 6-1, 7-5, after which he defeated Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 to win the 2000 French Open. Then, throughout the next two years, Nelson saw victory at only one of the four Grand Slam majors, namely the 2001 Australian Open, where he successfully defended his title by defeating Andre Agassi 6-4, 7-5, thereby making it his tenth and last Australian Open title, currently a joint record with Novak Djokovic, and the 2002 Wimbledon Championships, where he defeated Australian Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 6-2 to win his fifth and final title at the tournament. Then, in 2003, Nelson defeated the much younger Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero at the finals of both of that year's French Open and US Open, with the latter seeing him clinch his eleventh and final title, an unbeaten men's singles record for the US Open that still stands today. Otherwise, in 2005, Nelson defeated an up-and-coming Rafael Nadal 7-5, 6-1 to confirm his twelfth and final title, a record that held until Nadal himself later surpassed it with his thirteenth title in 2022. In the meantime, Nelson also won his last two ATP Finals titles, defeating Lleyton Hewitt in 2002 and defending champion Roger Federer in 2004, with the latter making him the oldest player to have won it at the age of forty-two.

Meanwhile, in 2005, the year that he ultimately announced his retirement, Nelson, after previous successive failures, eventually found success for Great Britain at the Davis Cup, defeating Croatia in a memorable final that year. Prior to this, beginning in 1992, Nelson had represented Great Britain almost consistently in the tournament each year with his highest moment prior to the 2005 final being just two years prior when Great Britain reached the semi-finals following tight 3-2 victories over Australia and Sweden before being utterly dismembered by Switzerland 0-5 afterward. To that end, after future 2015 Davis Cup winner Andy Murray initially defeated Mario Ančić in the first set, thereby making it 1-0, Croatia fired back through Ivan Ljubičić, who, in turn, defeated Alex Bogdanovic to make it 1-1, to which Great Britain responded with the pairing of Nelson and Greg Rusedski to defeat Mario Ančić and Ivan Ljubičić to reestablish their lead with a victory over three straight sets, thereby making it 2-1. However, the subsequent loss of David Sherwood against Ivan Ljubičić resulted in a 2-2 draw, meaning that the fifth and final set between Nelson and his much younger opponent Ivan Ljubičić would decide the final outcome. To that end, Nelson ultimately took just three sets to clinch the title for Great Britain, defeating Ljubičić 6-2, 7-5, 6-3, thereby securing Great Britain's first Davis Cup in almost seven decades since 1936, roughly sixty-nine years ago, when it was last won by the late Fred Perry.

Shortly after his historic victory, at the age of forty-three, Nelson declared his retirement from professional tennis, thereby bringing to an end a twenty-five-year-long career that saw him amass a record total of 38 Grand Slam titles which includes ten titles at the Australian Open, twelve at the French Open, five at Wimbledon, and eleven at the US Open. During this period, Nelson historically became the second male player after Australia's Rod Laver to have completed the Grand Slam more than once, the only man to have won the Golden Slam and achieved a Grand Slam in both the singles and mixed doubles categories, as well as just one of three players in history to have achieved the Golden Slam and win all four Grand Slam majors four times or more, a feat that he shares with his wife Steffi Graf and former student Maria Sharapova, whom he coached from 2013 to 2018. Meanwhile, at a total of 680 weeks long or roughly 13 years, Nelson currently holds the all-time record for the most weeks spent as world No. 1 irrespective of gender, followed by Maria Sharapova in second place at 573 weeks or 11 years long, and Steffi Graf in third at 502 weeks or 9 years long.

Playing Style

A student of the famed Pancho Segura throughout much of his career, Nelson came to acquire a reputation for an aggressive and somewhat pacey style of play and is thus considered to be one of the greatest practitioners of the serve-and-volley. In line with this, Nelson has also received considerable praise for his adept footwork which allows him to place himself in suitable positions rather often to accurately and quickly respond to serves from his opponents, which he usually did so while being close to the net rather than the baseline with the main aim of overwhelming his opponent with a combination of sheer speed and precision. Later, in one of the several interviews discussing his playing style, Nelson said, "While I would confidently say that I'm a somewhat athletic person who could usually handle long games of tennis, at the same time, I don't really like having excessively long, drawn-out rallies, especially when I'm playing in a Grand Slam tournament unless I'm really forced to do so because aside from being generally good and skilled in the sport, one must always be ready to face their opponent at any given time and ideally in a top condition. Because of that, if I have a very strong opponent coming up later, I usually want to have my current opponent dealt with quickly so that any energy I might have lost while fighting my opponent could be restored much quicker and in time for my next match". Meanwhile, despite having never really preferred either his forehand or backhand during rallies, Nelson is more known to many for his powerful forehand that, paired with his penchant for topspin shots, made him a lethal and, at times, a difficult opponent to keep up with, especially during the later stages. Consequently, his style of play, coupled with his natural blond hair, eventually earned him the nickname "The Thunderbolt", his most popular moniker, along with several other variations, including "Thundering Nelson" and "The Prince of Thunder".

Being one of only three tennis players in Open Era history alongside Steffi Graf and Maria Sharapova to have won each of the four Grand Slam tournaments more than four times, with each tournament employing a different type of surface, Nelson is generally considered to be a versatile player able to adapt to the different types of tennis courts, particularly the clay court used in the French Open where despite the clay surface being somewhat of a traditional deterrent against his fast and pacey playing style, with a total of eight titles won, Nelson, who rarely abandons his trademark serve-and-volley playing style throughout his two-decades-long career, has thus proven to be a remarkable all-rounder whose effectiveness and best qualities are seemingly unaffected by a change in surfaces. Moreover, when necessary, Nelson has proven his ability to play a baseline game, particularly on hard courts, thereby making him a formidable foe not easily deterred by a mere switch in court surfaces. Later on, during an interview with BBC Sport, Nelson remarked, "As a professional tennis player, winning titles is obviously my aim every single time I play, but what I personally and ultimately aim for is to prove that I could win a roughly similar number of titles across all four Grand Slam tournaments because if I proved successful in doing that, it shows that no matter what court or under what weather I'm playing in, nothing or no one could stop me from being at my best and playing the way that I liked the most. In the end, I don't like knowing that a certain type of surface disadvantages me in any way because the surface is supposed to be my ally against my opponent rather than against me instead".

Personal Life

As the secondborn son of King Charles III, for much of his life, Nelson was second in line to the throne of the United Kingdom. However, the birth of his niece, the future Queen Alexandra, saw him relegated to third place during the final years of his father's reign. Then, during the first few years of his brother's reign, Nelson was once again second in line to the throne until the birth of his nephew Prince Richard, followed by several other children of his brother, resulted in him placing sixth in the line of succession where he currently sits.

In a somewhat unusual manner for a member of the royal family, Nelson is known to have publicly sported a pair of tattoos, both of which are inked on his arms. In this, his right arm features a tattoo depicting a lightning bolt crossed with an arrow, referencing his nickname and playing style. Otherwise, his left arm features a tattoo depicting a combination of the letter "V" and the Roman numeral for three ("III"), a reference to the famous phrase of "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered") by the Roman leader Julius Caesar.

A fan of high-end automobiles in the tradition of his family, Nelson, much like his siblings, personally owns several vehicles himself in which he is known to be a devoted fan of the German luxury vehicle brand Mercedes-Benz, for which he has fittingly served as its brand ambassador. In line with this, Nelson is said to normally drive a white Mercedes-AMG GT. In addition to this, Nelson also reportedly owns Mercedes-Benz G-Class and a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, both of which he tends to otherwise drive less frequently on average. Meanwhile, much like his brother, Nelson also owns a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he occasionally drives for leisurely purposes.

A longtime supporter with his brother of the English football club Manchester United, Nelson was briefly rumoured to be a potential candidate for taking over Manchester United from the Glazer family, the club's current owners. However, Nelson himself later refuted such rumours but said that he remains "deeply committed" to seeing a revival in fortunes for the club whose period following the departure of its longtime manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been less than promising, stating, "Ultimately, it is up to them whether they want to stay or leave the club in shambles, a far cry from when they first bought the club almost two decades ago. Now, regardless of their next decision, they must, by all means necessary, restore the prestige of a historic club like Manchester United rather than continuing to drag a once feared name through the gutter as they have done for the last two decades or so".

Marriage

The German tennis player Steffi Graf at the 1988 Summer Olympics, where she defeated Argentina's Gabriela Sabatini to become the first of two women and the second player after her husband to win the Golden Slam, a feat that was most recently achieved by Maria Sharapova in 2012

Since 1999, Nelson has been married to the former German tennis player Steffi Graf. To that end, the couple first crossed paths at a 1990 exhibition game popularly dubbed "The Golden Slam Showdown", a best-of-three sets contest that pitted a 28-year-old Nelson and a 21-year-old Graf, both of whom currently hold the distinction of being the only two tennis players, male or female, to achieve a Golden Slam. Held at the Centre Court in Wimbledon, London, the competition initially saw Graf comfortably beat Nelson over four games straight to ultimately win the first set 6-1 in which Nelson himself only managed a single win, namely a 5-3 triumph in the fifth game. Then, in the otherwise more dramatic and tightly contested second set, the two traded wins right after the other over the course of twelve straight games to ultimately make it 6-6, during which Nelson notably fought to achieve a grueling 13-11 victory over Graf in the tenth game, thereby resulting in an equally dramatic tiebreaker that was ultimately won by Graf 8-6, thus effectively ending the tournament with two straight sets won for the German star. In this, despite some ridicule afterward over his heavy defeat in the first set to Graf, a newfound sense of respect and, in turn, affection for his opponent soon saw Nelson discreetly begin making a move on Graf, thus beginning their eventual romance not long after their first on-pitch encounter. However, given that both of them were established stars in tennis, the two mutually agreed to keep their relationship a secret out of a need to ensure that neither of their careers would be derailed by excessive media coverage and interest regarding their romance.

Despite the secrecy, throughout the following years, the two went on to compete together for the doubles matches to considerable success, with the pairing itself simultaneously sparking rumours of a romance between them given their rather friendly behaviour with each other and the fact that both of them are the only ones to have ever achieved the historic Golden Slam. In this, despite neither of them publicly acknowledging their relationship, their joint appearance at the wedding of Nelson's brother to the American supermodel Christy Turlington in July 1995, coupled with them always pairing up with each other for mixed doubles matches, only gave further credence to a supposed romance between the two with the New York Post particularly coining the portmanteau "Neffi", a combination of their first names, while ESPN dubbed them "the first and greatest power couple in sports history", adding that no known romance between two highly successful athletes in any given sport has ever emerged before. Eventually, on 12 September 1999, shortly after the couple achieved a historic Grand Slam in the mixed doubles category, becoming only the second pair to do so after Margaret Court and Ken Fletcher, Nelson publicly proposed to Graf on the tennis court, a gesture that seemingly confirmed their relationship for the first time despite it reportedly being an open secret by that point. Then, on 14 June 2000, during which Graf also celebrated her 31st birthday, the couple was wedded at Oheka Castle in New York, United States in an intimate ceremony attended by their closest friends and relatives including Graf's famous rivals Monica Seles and Martina Navratilova, Nelson's own brother King Thomas, and their younger sister Catherine, Princess Royal. Following this, the couple later went on to welcome four children, namely sons Charles and Frederick and daughters Elisabeth and Heidi. By the couple's own request, neither of their four children was afforded royal titles, although they all still retain their respective positions in the line of succession while taking their mother's "Graf" surname. Meanwhile, Graf, who would normally be styled as "Princess Nelson" upon marriage, also refused a royal title for herself and instead chose to be officially referred to as "Miss Stefanie Graf". Later, upon assuming British citizenship via naturalisation, Graf was subsequently given a damehood for her service to tennis on her 50th birthday.

Later on, during a 2010 interview marking the twentieth anniversary of the "Golden Slam Showdown", in one of the few instances where he publicly spoke about his marriage to Steffi Graf, Nelson, while confirming that the two did indeed begin a relationship not long after their fateful first encounter, said that he already harboured feelings for Graf before the two even met for the first time, adding that following his historic 1984 Golden Slam triumph, he initially thought that no other player, male or female, could ever replicate his success given the sheer difficulty until the German tennis legend herself did it just four years later and, being only nineteen at the time, was a few years younger than Nelson who was twenty-three at the time of his historic achievement. Consequently, Nelson himself soon conceived the idea of a "Golden Slam Showdown" between him and Graf so as to test the German tennis player himself while simultaneously working gradually towards an eventual romantic relationship, stating, "When she did what I thought no one else could do, I instantly knew that out of the many great tennis players I have met throughout my long career, she is a one-of-a-kind player that exactly no one else could compare to with all their achievements and whom I rightly saw as not just my equal in the sport but also my one-half for life". However, despite the couple's superstar status, the two are known to have generally avoided the media and only give interviews on a rare and occasional basis, having opted for a more private and reserved lifestyle. Otherwise, the couple has since been actively devoted to various charitable organisations related to issues including poverty, war, and climate change while also occasionally making appearances at exhibition tennis events from time to time.

In 2018, following the retirement of Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova, the latest tennis player, male or female, to win the Golden Slam and to win all four Grand Slam tournaments four times or more, media outlets begin to popularly refer to Nelson, Graf, and Sharapova collectively as "the royal family of tennis" with Nelson and Graf as the "King" and "Queen" and Sharapova as the "Princess". Together, the trio collectively boasts 92 Grand Slam titles, 285 career titles, and roughly $194.7 million in prize money.