Monica Seles

Monica Seles (Ser :Моника Селеш , Mag. Szeles Mónika, Eng. Monica Seles; born in Novi Sad, December 2, 1973) is a former Yugoslav and later American professional tennis player of Hungarian origin - the former best tennis player in the world.

During her career, she won 9 Grand Slam tournaments. She is the youngest tennis player to win Roland Garros. She was a dominant tennis player in 1991 and 1992, but had to retire from tennis in 1993, due to an injury she received at a tournament in Hamburg when she was stabbed by a spectator.

She returned to tennis in 1995, but failed to reach the success she had in the early 1990s.

### Tennis career begin

Selesova started playing tennis at the age of six. Her coach was her father Karolj ( Károly). She won her first tournament at the age of nine, although at that time she did not understand the way of scoring points in tennis, so during the match she did not know who was leading in the game. At the moment when she needed it most, Djorđe Balašević ( most famous Yugoslavian singer - songwritter from Novi Sad ) put his tennis court at her disposal, which significantly contributed to her tennis development.

In 1985, at just 11 years old, she won the prestigious Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, US

She started playing professional tennis in 1988, at the age of 14. The following year, her full professional WTA career began when she won Houston in May 1989, defeating Chris Evert in the final. A month later, Selesova reached the semifinals of the French Open, when she lost to the then-best tennis player, Steffi Graf. Monika finished her first season at number 6 on the VTA list.

With a strong forehand and backhand, as well as a strong return, Selesova is considered by many to be the first "power player" in women's tennis.

She is also known for her loud moaning when hitting the ball, so some tennis players have complained about her loudness and referees have warned her to be a little quieter.

Her first Grand Slam tournament was the 1990 French Open, where she faced Steffi Graf in the final. Selesova saved 4 tied set points in the tiebreak of the first set, which she won 8-6, and managed to win the match in two sets (7-6, 6-4). By winning the tournament, she became the youngest tennis player to win the French Open at only 16 and a half years old.

### Career highlight

In 1991, Selesova had a dominant position in women's tennis. She started the season by winning the Australian Open in January, defeating Jana Novotna in the final. Two months later, on March 11, she took over the No. 1 spot on the WTA chart from Steffi Graf.

She successfully defended her title at the French Open, defeating the youngest competitor at the time, Arancha Sánchez Vicario, in the fina. After the break, she appeared at the US Open where she defeated Martina Navratilova in the final, cementing her place as the number one tennis player in the world.

The following year, 1992, was also dominated by Selesova in women's tennis. She successfully defended the Grand Slam tournaments in Australia, France and America. She reached the final at Wimbledon, but could not break the dominance of Steffi Graf on grass courts, losing 6:2, 6:1.

In the period from January 1991 to February 1993, Selesova won 22 tournaments and reached 33 finals out of 34 tournaments in which she played. In that period, she had 159 wins and only 12 losses (92.9% wins), including 55/1 in Grand Slam tournaments. In a broader context, from the beginning of her professional career in 1989 to the end of 1992, she had 231 wins and 25 losses (90.2% wins) and 30 tournament titles. Only Chris Evert had a better winning percentage (91.1% from 1971 to 1974) and 34 tournaments. However, Selesova was unable to maintain that success until the end of her career.

### 1993.

In 1993, Selesova entered strongly. In January, she won the Australian Open for the third time in a row, defeating Steffi Graf.However, everything will change in an incident that shocked the world of tennis on April 30, 1993.

In the quarter-finals, in the match between Seles and Magdalena Maleeva, at the tournament in Hamburg, a 38-year-old spectator, Gunter Parhe, an obsessive fan of Steffi Graf, stabbed with 23 cm knife Monika Seles in the spine, between the shoulder blades.

She was soon taken to the hospital. Physically, Monica recovered within a few weeks, but the attack left a bigger, psychological impact. She did not return to professional tennis for the next two years.

The attacker did not receive a prison sentence due to his mental condition, but received a suspended 3-year sentence with mandatory psychological treatment. Because of this incident, security measures at tennis tournaments have been increased

After the incident, Grafova once again became dominant in women's tennis, due to Selesova's absence from tournaments.

During her absence, Seles became a citizen of the United States of America on May 17, 1994.

### Return and end

Selesova returned to professional tennis in August 1995 and won her first comeback tournament, the Canadian Open. Many thought that she would be able to regain the dominance in tennis that she had at the beginning of her professional career. In the same month, she reached the final of the American Open Championship, when she lost to Steffi Graf with a score of 7:6, 0:6, 6:3. In January 1996, Selesova once again won the Australian Open, but this would be her last Grand Slam title.

Selesova struggled to reach her best form. This was influenced by her father, Karolj, who was diagnosed with cancer and died in 1998.

After becoming a US citizen, Selesova helped the US team win the Fed Cup in 1996 and 2000. She also won bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Having won 53 tournaments by 2003, Selesova had to leave professional tennis due to a leg injury.

The successes of Monika Seles rank her among the best tennis female players of all time.

### Later life

Monica Seles currently lives in Florida. In 2007, she also became a Hungarian citizen.Since 2009, Selesova has been in a relationship with American businessman Tom Golisan. Her autobiography was published on April 21, 2009.