Monica Seles, at the very young age of 19, was one of the best female players of her time. She started playing professional tennis at the age of 14; winning tournaments almost immediately. By the age of 16, she was already ranked 6th on the WTA list. But then, on 30th April 1993, her life changed forever. At a tournament in Hamburg, during her quarterfinal match against Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva; she was stabbed from the back, on her shoulders.
How did Seles’s tennis career come to a grinding halt?
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She won the Roland Garros soon after her 16th birthday. Becoming not only the youngest champion at the French Open but also the World No. 1 on the WTA list. If these achievements seem not great enough here are some more insane statistics from Seles’s short career.
In the next couple of seasons, she won 9 Grand Slam and 53 titles. And from January 1991 to February 1993, she reached 33 of the 34 finals, winning 22 of them! But the horrific incident in Hamburg changed the course of her life forever!
Also read: ‘You Are One of My Heroes’ – Hall of Famer Monica Seles Has Got Herself a Fan in Prakash Amritraj
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“I never imagined in my wildest dreams that would happen to me obviously on a tennis court and I was just coming back from an injury... You know, it was very difficult for me and my family because of everything that was going on back in my former country. It was just really a heartbreaking time in the big picture,” she said recalling the horrific incident. That cut her incredible tennis career short.
Monica Seles opens up about coming to terms with the incident
What happened to her must have left Seles with a lot of trauma to process, as no one expects this kind of unsolicited violence in a sports match, let alone tennis. Her attacker, Gunter Parche, a die-hard fan of Steffi Graf made it his life mission to stop Seles in whatever way possible. This was such that she cannot continue to be an obstacle to Steffi Graf’s career.
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But as a result of his actions, Seles went from one of the top players in the world to someone, who could not move her hands. And was ridden with issues like anxiety, depression, PTSD, and the likes.
“In my tennis career, I was playing probably some amazing tennis but everything else was very tough so I had to very quickly grow up and in terms of what was going on. Hamburg made it even faster because I realize, ‘Oh, for a night, everything can be taken away from something what you are doing,” she said, in an interview with another great Chris Evert.
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While she did make a comeback and won a grand slam, she was a changed person. And could not play with the same intensity as before. She finally retired in 2008 and only recently has started attending tennis events again.
