Monica Seles: A Tennis All-Time Great Cut Off At Her Prime
Born on December 2nd, 1973, in Serbia, into a Hungarian household, Monica Seles’ first brushes with tennis came when she was five. Her father Karolj oversaw her development as a player and in 1985 guided his daughter to success at the Orange Bowl event in Florida when Monica was just 11. It was here that her talent was spotted by renowned tennis trainer, Nick Bollettieri, and in 1986, the Seles household settled in the USA so Monica could hone her playing nous at the well known Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Seles contested her initial professional event in 1988 and inaugurated her professional career the following year. She took her first trophy at the Houston event in May 1989, where Seles overcame Chris Evert in the final showdown. Shortly afterwards, she made it to the semifinals of the French Open, where top seed, Steffi Graf, denied her the ultimate prize. Seles concluded her debutant year on the professional circuit ranked world number 6 in the WTA rankings.
In 1990 came Seles’ first Grand Slam triumph at the French Open in Roland Garros. Seles sensationally overcame world number one Steffi Graf in straight sets. The victory made Seles the youngest ever French Open winner in the singles sphere. The Serb also took the 1990 season-ending Virginia Slims Championships, wrapping up the years run ranked number two in the world. In 1991, Seles took the tennis arena by storm by getting the better of women’s top seeds at three Grand Slam final showdowns. She overcame Jana Novotna at the Australian Open, demolished Arantxa Sanchez Vicario at Roland Garros, and took the U.S. Open after overpowering the great Martina Navratilova. Now ranked the world’s top player, Martina raged into the 1992 season, successfully guarding her 1991 U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open titles in a remarkable run. She also made it to that year’s Wimbledon final, but here Steffi Graf beat her to the Venus Rosewater Dish.
Seles marched into the 1993 as women’s highest ranked player and avenged last year’s Wimbledon finals defeat to Steffi Graf by getting the better of the German at the Australian Open final. However, Seles’ remarkable run was brought to a nightmarish end at the 1993 Hamburg event, when Gunter Parche, a mentally deranged admirer of Steffi Graf, knifed Seles in the back in a quarterfinals showdown against Magdalena Maleeva. Parche stated he had attacked Seles to leave the coast clear for Graf to resume her world number one spot.
Though Seles recovered from the physical wounds soon, she did not make a comeback to professional tennis until August 1995, never to regain the sparkle that had once made her virtually unbeatable. That year, she took the Canadian Open title and made it to the final of the U.S. Open, where she fell to rival Steffi Graf. Seles ushered in the 1996 campaign with a triumph at the Australian Open, but sadly enough, this was to be the ultimate Grand Slam trophy of her career. That year, she once again fell afoul of Steffi Graf at the U.S. Open. Seles’ predicament was accentuated by the distress affected by her father’s ongoing battle with cancer. Weeks after her father’s death in 1998, Seles sailed into the French Open finals, where she eventually succumbed to Arantxa Vicario. This was to be the ultimate Grand Slam final of her glittering, yet tragedy ridden career. However, Seles nevertheless ensured her position amongst WTA’s world top ten ranked players until 2002, her final full year on the WTA tour. Although Seles did not participate in an official tour contest after injuring her foot in spring 2003, it was only in 2008 that she formally bade farewell to the sport that had brought her both joy and sorrow.
In early 1999, Seles was voted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Currently she serves as the Goodwill Ambassador of IIMSAM (the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition), where Seles joins other high profile celebrities in helping to realise the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
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