Monica Seles was born On December 2, 1973. She is a former world No. 1 professional American tennis player, who originally played for her native Yugoslavia. Although born in the former Yugoslavia, she became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994. She has won nine Grand Slam singles titles, including four Australian Open women's singles titles. She became the youngest-ever champion at the French Open in 1990. She was the top ranked player in the women's game during 1991 and 1992. Biography Monica Seles was born in Novi Sad, SFR Yugoslavia (present-day Vojvodina, Serbia) to ethnically Hungarian parents. Considered to be one of the best players of all time, Seles began playing tennis at the age of six, coached by her father Károly Szeles. She won her first tournament at the age of nine, despite not fully understanding the scoring system of the game and having only a vague idea of whether she was leading or trailing her opponents during matches.[citation needed] In 1985 at the age of 11, she won the Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, and caught the attention of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. In 1986, the Seles family moved from SFR Yugoslavia to the United States, and Seles enrolled in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, where she trained for two years. Seles played her first professional tournament in 1988 at the age of 14. The following year, she joined the professional tour full-time and won her first career title at Houston in May 1989, where she beat Chris Evert in the final. A month later, Seles reached the semifinals in her first Grand Slam singles tournament at the French Open, where she lost to World No. 1 Steffi Graf, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 . Seles finished her first year on the tour ranked World No. 6. Style With punishing, sharp-angled two-fisted forehand and backhand shots and a dominating return of serve, Monica Seles is considered by many to be the first "power player" in the women's game, paving the way for players such as Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Maria Sharapova.[citation needed] She was also well-known for grunting loudly on court. On a few occasions, her opponents claimed that the grunting was distracting and prevented them from hearing the ball make contact with her racquet. A remarkable aspect of her style, the two-handed forehand, was expected to make her reach shorter, but she manages to compensate for the shorter reach by being able to hit balls much harder, with more top-spin, allowing her to hit sharper angles. Also, she had very fast feet, allowing herself to run down balls and get into a position to return a shot.
Monica Seles won her first Grand Slam singles title at the French Open in 1990. Facing World No. 1 Graf in the final, she saved four set-points in a first-set tie-breaker, 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 champion at the age of 16 years, 6 months. She also won the 1990 season-ending championships, defeating Gabriela Sabatini in five sets, finishing the season ranked 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. However, instead of playing at Wimbledon, she took a six-week break, blaming shin splints. But she was back in time for the U.S. Open, and won it beating Martina Navrátilová in the final to cement her position at the top of the world rankings. She also won the season-ending championships, beating Navratilova in four sets. 1992 was an equally dominant year. She successfully defended her titles at the Australian Open, the French Open, and the U.S. Open. She also reached the final at Wimbledon, but could not manage to break Graf's dominance on the grass court surface and lost 6-2, 6-1. Some observers, however, attribute her lop-sided loss to her decision to remain silent throughout the match, resulting in less penetrating shots. Two opponents (including Navrátilová in the semifinals) had strongly complained about Seles' grunts. During the period from January 1991 to February 1993, Monica 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 in Grand Slam tournaments. In the broader context of her first four years on the circuit (1989-1992), Monica Seles had a win-loss record of 231-25 (90.2% winning percentage) and collected 30 titles. Only Evert had a better first four years in terms of winning percentage (91.1% from 1971 to 1974) and titles (34) in the open era. Monica Seles was the top women's player heading into 1993, having won the French Open three consecutive years, and the US Open and Australian Open both in consecutive years. In January 1993, Seles defeated Graf in the final of the Australian Open, which was her third win in five Grand Slam matches with Graf. However, everything changed following an incident that shocked the tennis world on April 30, 1993. During a quarterfinal match with Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg that Seles was leading in 6-4, 4-3, a 38-year-old deranged fan of Graf, Günter Parche, ran from the middle of the crowd to the edge of the court during a break between games and plunged a steak knife between Seles' shoulder blades. She let out a piercing scream and was quickly rushed to a hospital. Her physical injuries took a few weeks to heal, but the psychological scars from this incident left a much deeper impression on Monica Seles. She did not return to competitive tennis for over two years. 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.[1] She vowed never to play tennis in Germany again. During her layoff from competitive tennis, Monica Seles became a United States citizen on May 17, 1994.
Monica Seles returned to the tour in August 1995 and won her first comeback tournament, the Canadian Open, beating Amanda Coetzer in the final 6-1, 6-0. Many believed that she would soon be dominating the circuit again in the way she was before the 1993 stabbing incident. The following month at the U.S. Open, Seles lost the final to Graf 7-6, 0-6, 6-3, after having held set-point in the first set. In January 1996, Monica Seles won her fourth Australian Open, beating Anke Huber in the final. But this was to be her last Grand Slam title. Seles struggled to recapture her best form on a regular basis. Her difficulties were compounded by having to cope with her father and long-term coach Károly being stricken by cancer and eventually passing away in 1998. Seles was runner-up at the U.S. Open to Graf again in 1996. Her last Grand Slam final came at the French Open in 1998 (a few weeks after her father's death). She defeated world No. 3 Novotna in three sets and world No. 1 Martina Hingis in straight sets before losing to Sánchez Vicario in three sets. After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1994, Seles helped the U.S. team win the Fed Cup in 1996 and 2000. She also won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. In the spring of 2003, Seles sustained a foot injury that has sidelined her from the tour ever since. In February 2005, she played two exhibition matches in New Zealand against Navrátilová. Although Seles lost both matches, she played competitively and announced that she could return to the game early in 2006. She has not done so, however, though she has said that she intends to play a few more tournaments before officially retiring.[citation needed] She became Hungarian citizen during the spring of 2007. Career assessment Monica Seles was listed as the 13th greatest player of all time (men and women) by 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). Seles is also known as one of the greatest "big point" players of all-time, having tremendous mental fortitude during the toughest situations on the court. Like Maureen Connolly, whose career was cut short by injury, Seles's career was affected seriously by the stabbing incident and it is impossible to know the course of her career had this not happened. Her trajectory was indicative of a legendary career - during the height of her career, 1990-1993, she was virtually unstoppable on the court. Trivia
Source of this Monica Seles article: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Tennis Players: Men Pete Sampras Roger Federer Bjorn Borg Andre Agassi Jimmy Connors John McEnroe Rafael Nadal Andy Roddick Women Steffi Graf Chris Evert Martina Navratilova Monica Seles Martina Hingis Serena Williams Venus Williams Maria Sharapova |
