Monica Seles

Monika Seles

Seles at the 1991 U.S. Women's Hardcourt Championships
Country (sports)	Yugoslavia (1988–1991)  Yugoslavia (1992–1994)  United States (1994–2008)
Residence	Sarasota, Florida, United States
Born	(1973-12-02) December 2, 1973 Novi Sad, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Turned pro	1989
Retired	2008 (last match 2003)
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed both sides)
Prize money	US$ 14,891,762
Int. Tennis HoF	2009 (member page)
Singles
Career record	595–122 (82.98%)
Career titles	53
Highest ranking	No. 1 (March 11, 1991)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996)
French Open	W (1990, 1991, 1992)
Wimbledon	F (1992)
US Open	W (1991, 1992)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	W (1990, 1991, 1992)
Olympic Games	Bronze medal (2000)
Doubles
Career record	89–45
Career titles	6
Highest ranking	No. 16 (April 22, 1991)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	SF (1991, 2001)
French Open	3R (1990)
Wimbledon	QF (1999)
US Open	QF (1999)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	United States W (1996, 1999, 2000)
Hopman Cup	Yugoslavia W (1991)  United States F (2001, 2002)
Medal record Women's tennis Representing  United States Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Singles

Monica Seles (/ˈsɛləs/; Hungarian: Szeles Mónika, Serbian: Моника Селеш, Monika Seleš, pronounced [ˈsɛlɛʃ],^[1] born December 2, 1973) is a former Yugoslav world no. 1 professional tennis player and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. An ethnic Hungarian, she was born and raised in Novi Sad, SFR Yugoslavia. She became a naturalized American citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007.^[2][3] She won nine Grand Slam singles titles, eight of them while a citizen of Yugoslavia and the final as a citizen of United States of America. In 1990, Seles became the youngest-ever French Open champion at the age of 16. She went on to win eight Grand Slam singles titles before her 20th birthday and was the year-end World No. 1 in 1991 and 1992. However, on April 30, 1993, she was the victim of an on-court attack, when a man stabbed her in the back with a 9-inch (23 cm) long knife; Seles did not return to tennis for over two years.^[4] Though she enjoyed some success after rejoining the tour in 1995, including a fourth Australian Open title in 1996, she was unable to consistently reproduce her best form. She played her last professional match at the 2003 French Open, but did not officially retire until February 2008.

In June 2011, Seles was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time.^[5]

Early life and career

Seles was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, current-day Serbia, into an ethnic Hungarian family. Her parents are Ester and Karolj^[6] and she has an older brother, Zoltán. She began playing tennis at age five, coached by her father, a professional cartoonist employed for decades at the Dnevnik and Magyar Szó newspapers,^[7] who drew pictures for her to make her tennis more fun. He is responsible for developing her two-handed style for both the forehand and backhand.^[8] Later, her coach was Jelena Genčić. In 1985, at the age of 11, she won the Junior Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, catching the attention of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. She won the Junior Orange Bowl in both the 12- and the 14-year categories, and is one of only nine tennis players to win the Junior Orange Bowl championship twice in its 70-year history, including Andy Murray, Jimmy Connors, Jennifer Capriati, and Yishai Oliel.^[9] In 1986 the Seles family moved from Yugoslavia to the United States, and Seles enrolled at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, where she trained for two years.

Seles played her first professional tournament as an amateur in 1988 at age 14. The following year she turned professional on February 13, 1989, and joined the professional tour full-time, winning her first career title at Houston in May 1989, where she beat the soon-to-retire Chris Evert in the final. A month later, Seles reached the semifinals of her first Grand Slam singles tournament at the French Open, losing to then world no. 1 Steffi Graf, 3–6, 6–3, 3–6. Seles finished her first year on the tour ranked world no. 6.

Tennis career

1990–92

After a slow start at the beginning of the season, Seles went on a 36-match winning streak and won 6 consecutive tournaments starting in Miami at the Lipton Player's Championships. During that winning streak she also won the U.S. Hard Court Championships (San Antonio, Texas), the Eckerd Open (Tampa, Florida), the Italian Open, and the Lufthansa Cup in Berlin, Germany (defeating Steffi Graf in the final in straight sets). Seles then won her first Grand Slam singles title at the 1990 French Open. Facing world no. 1 Steffi Graf in the final, Seles saved four set points in a first set tiebreaker, which she won 8–6, and went on to take the match in straight sets. In doing so, she became the youngest-ever French Open singles titlist at the age of 16 years, 6 months. Her winning streak was stopped by Zina Garrison at Wimbledon in the quarterfinals which went to 9-7 in the 3rd set. Seles then won the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles title against Martina Navratilova 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, and then defeated Navratilova again in winning the Oakland California tournament, in straight sets 6-3, 7-6. She also won the 1990 year-end Virginia Slims Championships, defeating Gabriela Sabatini in five sets (in the first five-set women's match since 1901 US National Championships), becoming the youngest to ever win the Season-Ending Championships. She finished the year ranked world no. 2.

1991 was the first of two years in which Seles dominated the women's tour. She started out by winning the Australian Open in January, beating Jana Novotná in the final. In March, she replaced Graf as the world no. 1. She then successfully defended her French Open title, beating the former youngest-ever winner, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, in the final. Unable to play at Wimbledon, suffering from shin splints, Seles took a six-week break. But she was back in time for the US Open, which she won by beating Martina Navratilova in the final, her third Grand Slam title of the year, to cement her position at the top of the world rankings. She also won the year-end Virginia Slims Championships for the second consecutive time, defeating Navratilova in four sets. At the end of season, Seles had won 10 out of the 16 tournaments she entered (reaching the final of every tournament that she entered that year). She ended the year as the #1 ranked player in the world.

1992 was an equally dominant year. Seles successfully defended her titles at the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open. She also reached her first-ever final at Wimbledon, but lost to Graf, 2–6, 1–6. During Wimbledon, Seles encountered difficulty because of her habit of grunting or shrieking loudly when hitting shots. A couple of London tabloid reporters brought decibel meters (jokingly labeled "Grunt-o-meters") to her matches to measure the loudness of her shrieks. Her quarterfinal opponent Nathalie Tauziat was the first to complain to the chair umpire about it. During the third set of her semi-final match against Martina Navratilova, Navratilova also complained to the chair umpire about the grunting after Seles went up a break at 4-2. Seles ended up losing the game and the break, but broke back and closed out the match.^[10]

From January 1991 through February 1993, Seles won 22 titles and reached 33 finals out of the 34 tournaments she played. She compiled a 159–12 win-loss record (92.9% winning percentage), including a 55–1 win-loss record (98%) in Grand Slam tournaments. In the broader context of her first four years on the circuit (1989–1992), Seles had a win-loss record of 231–25 (90.2%) and collected 30 titles. She once again ended the year as the #1 ranked player in the world.

Stabbing

Seles was the top women's player heading into 1993, having won the French Open three consecutive years and both the US Open and Australian Open in consecutive years. In January 1993, Seles defeated Graf in the final of the Australian Open, which to date was her third win in four Grand Slam finals against Graf. With eight Grand Slam singles titles before her 20th birthday on December 2, 1993, Seles holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a teenager in the Open Era. She then won the Virginia Slims of Chicago over Martina Navratilova in 3 sets. This was the last title that Seles won before the attack in Hamburg, Germany.

On April 30 during a quarterfinal match with Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg in which Seles was leading 6–4, 4–3, Günter Parche, an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf, ran from the middle of the crowd to the edge of the court during a break between games and stabbed Seles with a boning knife between her shoulder blades, to a depth of 1.5 cm (0.59 inches). She was quickly rushed to a hospital. Although her physical injuries took only a few weeks to heal, she did not return to competitive tennis for more than two years. Initially, there was speculation that the attack may have been politically motivated because Seles was from Yugoslavia. She was known to have received death threats in relation to the ongoing conflict in her native Yugoslavia. However, German authorities were quick to rule this out, describing her attacker as confused and possibly mentally disturbed.^[4]

Parche was charged following the incident, but was not jailed because he was found to be psychologically abnormal, and was instead sentenced to two years' probation and psychological treatment. The incident prompted a significant increase in the level of security at tour events.^[4] At the French Open, held less than a month after the attack, the trophy presentation ceremony took place on the court, rather than in the stands amongst spectators, as it had been done previously. At that year's Wimbledon, the players seats were positioned with their backs to the umpire's chair, rather than the spectators. Seles, however, disputed the effectiveness of these measures. She was quoted in 2011 as saying "From the time I was stabbed, I think the security hasn't changed".^[11] Seles vowed never to play tennis in Germany again, disenchanted by the German legal system. "What people seem to be forgetting is that this man stabbed me intentionally and he did not serve any sort of punishment for it... I would not feel comfortable going back. I don't foresee that happening."^[12]

Young Elders, a band from Melbourne, Australia, sent their song called "Fly Monica Fly" to Seles while she was recuperating from the 1993 stabbing incident. She later said that the song provided inspiration to her at that time, and subsequently met the band (who later changed their name to the Monicas) following her victory at the Australian Open in 1996.^[13] The stabbing incident is the subject of Dan Bern's 1998 tribute to Seles, "Monica". Additionally, Detroit dreampop band Majesty Crush paid tribute with "Seles" from the 1993 album Love-15. Hugh Laurie wrote a parody song about the motivations of the attacker.

The WTA suggested that Seles' number one ranking be preserved during her absence, but did not do so.^[14] According to Seles' autobiography, all active tour players opposed the idea except Gabriela Sabatini, who abstained.^[15][16]

Comeback

Seles returned to the tour in August 1995. In the runup to her comeback, then WTA president Martina Navratilova proposed that Seles be reinstated alongside Steffi Graf as joint number one.^[14] The WTA did so despite some opposition from players including Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Gigi Fernández, whose tournament placements would suffer greatly by suddenly being placed behind Seles.^[14][17] Graf supported Seles' co-ranking, but not the additional proposal that Seles' co-ranking not be determined by the minimum participation of 12 tournaments a year required of everyone else. Graf felt that would give Seles an unfair advantage in the rankings.^[14] Seles won her first comeback tournament, the Canadian Open, beating Amanda Coetzer in the final, 6–0, 6–1 and setting a tournament record for least number of games dropped by the champion throughout the tournament (14). The following month at the US Open, Seles reached the final defeating world No.10 Anke Huber, No.4 Jana Novotná, No.3 Conchita Martínez (all in straight sets), but lost to Graf in the final, 6–7, 6–0, 3–6.

In January 1996, Seles won her fourth Australian Open, beating Anke Huber in the final. Her pivotal match was the semifinal vs rising American star Chanda Rubin who led her 5-3 in the final set, and had 2 break points to lead 5-1. Seles came back from 2 points from defeat to triumph and reach the final. This was to be Seles' last Grand Slam title, as she struggled to recapture her best form on a consistent basis. Seles was the runner-up at the US Open to Steffi Graf again in 1996. Her last Grand Slam final came at the French Open in 1998. In the run to the final she had defeated world no. 3 Jana Novotná in three sets and world no. 1 Martina Hingis in straight sets, but lost to Sánchez Vicario in the three-set final.

While she did not reach another Grand Slam singles final, she did consistently reach the quarterfinal and semifinal stages in those tournaments and was a fixture in the WTA Tour's top 10. In 2002, her last full year on the tour, she finished the year ranked world no. 7, defeated Venus Williams, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, and Lindsay Davenport, and reached at least the quarterfinals at each Grand Slam tournament.

Monica Seles competed at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where she beat Sabatini in a third round match before losing to Jana Novotná in the quarterfinals. Four years later, at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Seles captured her first Olympic medal, a bronze in singles. She defeated Jelena Dokic in the bronze medal match, after pushing eventual gold medalist Venus Williams to a tough 3 setter in the semis, losing 6-3 in the final set.

After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1994, Seles helped the U.S. team win the Fed Cup in 1996, 1999, and 2000.

Hiatus and retirement

Seles in the 2007 exhibition against Martina Navratilova in New Orleans, Louisiana

In the spring of 2003, Seles sustained a foot injury. She was forced to withdraw during the second set of a match against Nadia Petrova at the Italian Open. Then, a couple of weeks later and still injured, she lost in straight sets to the same player in the first round of the 2003 French Open. It was the only time she ever lost a first-round match at a Grand Slam. She never again played an official tour match.^[18]

In February 2005, Seles played two exhibition matches in New Zealand against Navratilova. Despite losing both matches, she played competitively and announced that she could return to the game early in 2006; however, she did not do so. She played three exhibition matches against Navratilova in 2007. On April 5, she defeated Navratilova in Houston, Texas, on clay, 7–6 (1), 2–6, 10–1 (tiebreak).^[19] On September 14, Seles defeated Navratilova on an indoor court in New Orleans, Louisiana, 6–2, 6–4. On September 16, she beat her on clay in Bucharest, Romania, 3–6, 6–3, 10–7 (tiebreak).^[20]

In December 2007, Seles told the press that Lindsay Davenport's successful return to the tour had inspired her to consider her own limited comeback to play Grand Slam tournaments and the major warm-up events for those tournaments. However, on February 14, 2008, Seles announced her official retirement from professional tennis.^[21]

In January 2009, Seles was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.^[22]

Assessment

Seles was listed as the 13th-greatest player of all time (men and women) by (U.S.) Tennis magazine, and was also one of 15 women named by Australian Tennis magazine as the greatest champions of the last 30 years (players were listed chronologically).

In 2012, Tennis Channel created a list of the "100 Greatest Of All Time" tennis players. Seles was listed at #19.

Seles's career was affected by the stabbing incident; her trajectory was indicative of continuing future greatness. During the height of her career (1990 French Open through the 1993 Australian Open), she won 8 of the 11 Grand Slam singles tournaments she contested.

Seles' outfit at the Tennis Hall of Fame Museum at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island

Until her loss to Martina Hingis at the 1999 Australian Open, Seles had a perfect record at the event (33–0), which is the longest undefeated streak for this tournament (although Margaret Court won 38 consecutive matches there from 1960 to 1968 after losing a match in 1959). It also marked her first defeat in Australia, having won the Sydney tournament in 1996. Seles was the first female tennis player to win her first six Grand Slam singles finals: 1990 French Open, 1991 Australian Open, 1991 French Open, 1991 US Open, 1992 Australian Open, and 1992 French Open. Seles was also the first female player since Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling in 1937 to win the women's singles title three consecutive years at the French Open. (Chris Evert, however, won the title the four consecutive times she played the tournament: 1974, 1975, 1979, and 1980; in 2007, Justine Henin won her third consecutive French Open singles title.) With eight Grand Slam singles titles before her 20th birthday, Seles holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a teenager in the Open Era.

Shortly after her retirement, Sports Illustrated writer Jon Wertheim summed up her later career:

Yet, transformed from champion to tragedienne, Seles became far more popular than she was while winning all those titles. It became impossible to root against her. At first, out of sympathy. Then, because she revealed herself to be so thoroughly thoughtful, graceful, dignified. When she quietly announced her retirement last week at age 34, she exited as perhaps the most adored figure in the sport's history. As happy endings go, one could do worse.^[23]

Seles was a popular player, winning the inaugural Sanex Hero of the Year award in 2002. This award was voted by fans around the world. She was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009.^[24]

Equipment and endorsements

In the early 1990s, Seles signed a $4-million endorsement contract with Fila to promote its footwear and tennis apparel.^[25] She used a Prince original graphite racquet on court.^[26] In August of the 1990 season, Seles switched to a Yonex racquet.

When she returned to the tour in 1995 after the stabbing sabbatical, Seles wore apparel by Nike and used a Yonex racquet on court.

In the 2000s, Seles wore apparel by Yonex and used Yonex SRQ Ti-800 Pro Long racquet on court.^[27]

Personal life

On April 21, 2009, Seles released her memoir Getting A Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self which chronicles her bout with depression and binge eating disorder (BED) after her stabbing, her father's cancer diagnosis and eventual death, her journey back to the game and a life beyond tennis.^[28]

Since 2009, Seles has been dating billionaire Tom Golisano, some 32 years her senior.^[29][30] The two announced their engagement on June 5, 2014.^[31]

As of 2015, Seles is a paid spokesperson for Shire Pharmaceuticals, the makers of the first drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat BED, to raise awareness of the disorder she has suffered from since she was a young adult. Seles would eat normal amounts of food at meals, and then secretly eat large amounts of junk food when she was alone.^[32]

In popular culture

In 1996, Seles made a guest appearance in the TV sitcom The Nanny.^[33] She also appeared in 2008 in the TV series Dancing with the Stars as one of the contestants.^[34]

Career statistics

Grand Slam singles finals: 13 finals (9 titles, 4 runners-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1990	French Open	Clay	Steffi Graf	7–6(8–6), 6–4
Winner	1991	Australian Open	Hard	Jana Novotná	5–7, 6–3, 6–1
Winner	1991	French Open (2)	Clay	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6–3, 6–4
Winner	1991	US Open	Hard	Martina Navratilova	7–6(7–1), 6–1
Winner	1992	Australian Open (2)	Hard	Mary Joe Fernández	6–2, 6–3
Winner	1992	French Open (3)	Clay	Steffi Graf	6–2, 3–6, 10–8
Runner-up	1992	Wimbledon	Grass	Steffi Graf	2–6, 1–6
Winner	1992	US Open (2)	Hard	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6–3, 6–3
Winner	1993	Australian Open (3)	Hard	Steffi Graf	4–6, 6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	1995	US Open	Hard	Steffi Graf	6–7(6–8), 6–0, 3–6
Winner	1996	Australian Open (4)	Hard	Anke Huber	6–4, 6–1
Runner-up	1996	US Open	Hard	Steffi Graf	5–7, 4–6
Runner-up	1998	French Open	Clay	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6–7(5–7), 6–0, 2–6

Singles performance timeline

Records

• These records were attained in Open Era of tennis.
• Records in bold indicate peer-less achievements.

See also

• Grunting in tennis

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monica Seles.

• Monica Seles at the Women's Tennis Association
• Monica Seles at the International Tennis Federation
• Monica Seles at the Fed Cup
  
• BBC Sport profile
• Monica Seles at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Monica Seles at the Internet Movie Database

Monica Seles (Achievement predecessor & successor)
Sporting positions Preceded by Steffi Graf Steffi Graf Steffi Graf Steffi Graf Steffi Graf World No. 1 March 11, 1991 - August 4, 1991 August 12, 1991 - August 18, 1991 September 9, 1991 - June 6, 1993 August 15, 1995 - November 3, 1996 (with S. Graf) November 18, 1996 - November 24, 1996 (with S. Graf) Succeeded by Steffi Graf Steffi Graf Steffi Graf Steffi Graf Steffi Graf Awards and achievements Preceded by Svetlana Kitić Mateja Svet Yugoslav Sportswoman of the Year 1985 1990 Succeeded by Mateja Svet None Preceded by Arantxa Sánchez Vicario WTA Most Improved Player 1990 Succeeded by Gabriela Sabatini Preceded by Steffi Graf WTA Player of the Year 1991–1992 Succeeded by Steffi Graf Preceded by Steffi Graf ITF World Champion 1991–1992 Succeeded by Steffi Graf Preceded by Merlene Ottey United Press International Athlete of the Year 1991, 1992 Succeeded by Wang Junxia Preceded by None Best Female Tennis Player ESPY Award 1993 Succeeded by Steffi Graf Preceded by None Best Female Athlete ESPY Award 1993 Succeeded by Julie Krone Preceded by Meredith McGrath Mary Pierce WTA Comeback Player of the Year 1995 1998 Succeeded by Jennifer Capriati Sabine Appelmans Preceded by Bonnie Blair Flo Hyman Memorial Award 2000 Succeeded by Lisa Leslie