Șteff is left-handed. She started playing table tennis at the age of nine. She was promoted by the coach Gheorghe Bogza, who also looked after well-known players such as Călin Creangă and Adrian Crişan. She won the national Romanian championships six times, in 1994 in doubles with Antonela Manac, in 1996 in singles, doubles (with Antonela Manac) and mixed (with Andrei Filimon), in 1997 in singles and in 2002 in mixed with Adrian Crișan.
In 1997 she joined Team Galaxy Lübeck[2] in the German Bundesliga. In 1998 she won the European Cup with Lübeck. In 1999, she joined TuS Bad Driburg[3] and in 2002 she moved to Müllermilch Langweid. In 2004 she left Germany for Italy to the Sterilgarda TT Castelgoffredo.
She was successful at the European Youth Championships, where she won gold once in singles, five times in doubles and once in mixed gold. At the European Championships for adults, she reached the final in the individual in 2000 and 2005. Together with Tamara Boroš, she became European champions in doubles in 2002, 2003 and 2005.
From 1995 to 2006 she took part in nine world championships for Romania. In 2000 and 2004 she qualified for the Olympic Games, where she reached the quarter-finals in both singles and doubles.
In autumn 2005 the Romanian national players Mihaela Șteff, Otilia Bădescu and Adriana Năstase-Simion-Zamfir refused to sign the contracts submitted by the Romanian table tennis association, according to which they forego 10% of the income from the ITTF Pro Tour in favor of the association.[4] They were then expelled from the national team and for the European Table Tennis Championships in 2007 no longer considered.
Romania
