Monica Seles - USA 
| Birth Date:
| 12/2/1973 |
Age:
| 39 |
| Birth Place:
| Novi Sad, Yugoslavia |
Residence:
| Sarasota, Florida |
| Height:
| 5' 10'' (1.78 m) |
Weight:
| 135 lbs. (61 kg) |
| Year Turned Pro:
| 1989 (retired 2007) |
Plays:
| Left-handed (two-handed both sides) |
| Official Website:
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Twitter:
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A native of Yugoslavia, Monica Seles is one of the greatest female players of the Open Era, despite having her prime interrupted by a horrific on-court attack that left her physically and emotionally damaged.
Seles won nine Grand Slam singles titles during her career and held the No. 1 ranking in the world for 178 weeks in all, fifth most all-time. Her career prize total of $14.9 million ranks ninth all-time. She finished in the year-end top 10 13 times in a 15-year career.
Seles turned pro in 1988, losing to legend Chris Evert in her second professional match. She ended the year ranked 86th after reaching the semifinals at the VS of New Orleans, defeating 12th-ranked Lori McNeil in the third round at the tender age of 15.
Seles took the tennis world by storm in 1989, winning her first WTA tournament at Houston that April and entering the rankings at No. 22 the following week, then exploded into worldwide prominence by reaching the semifinals of the French Open without losing a set, taking out Top 10 players Zina Garrison and Manuela Maleeva-Fraginere before finally losing to No. 1 Steffi Graf, who would become her chief rival. She catapulted from 22nd to 13th in the rankings, and proceeded to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, again losing to Graf. She reached the fourth round at the US Open (lost to Evert), the finals at Dallas (lost to Martina Navratilova) and finished the year ranked sixth overall.
The meteoric rise was just the tip of the iceberg for Seles. In March of 1990 she won at Miami, taking home more than $100,000 without losing a set. It was the first of a stunning six consecutive tournament titles for Seles as she took the crowns in succession at the US Hardcourts, the Eckerd Open, the Italian Open (defeating Navratilova in the final) and the Berlin Open, taking her first-ever win over Graf. By the time the French Open began in late May, Seles was ranked third in the world and seeded second in the Roland Garros field. Despite early trouble, she did not disappoint, sweeping to her first Grand Slam title with a 7-6(6), 6-4 win over Graf in the final, becoming the youngest French Open winner ever at the age of 16 years, six months. Seles ultimately won 36 straight matches before falling to Zina Garrison in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. She returned to win at Los Angeles, but fell in the third round in of the US Open to 82nd-ranked Linda Ferrando. Seles completed the year by winning the Tour Championships, outlasting Gabriela Sabatini in five sets, marking the first time the tour title match had gone five since 1901. Seles ended the year ranked second overall.
Her fire burned brighter still to start off 1991. She took the crown at the Australian Open over Jana Novotna for her second Grand Slam victory. After losing in the finals at Palm Springs, she took over the No. 1 rank for the first time, and put it in a vise lock as she repeated at the French Open and Miami, and added the US Open to her resume with convincing 7-6(1), 6-1 win over Navratilova. She defeated Navratilova again at the Tour Championship to end the year ranked No. 1.
Seles entered the 1992 season ranked No. 1 in the world and justified it right off the bat by winning the Australian Open for the second time, losing only one set in the process. She took her third straight French Open title with a marathon 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 victory over No. 2 Graf, then lost to Graf in the finals at Wimbledon, narrowly missing a career Grand Slam at the tender age of 18. Entering the final at the All England Club, Seles was 44-2 on the year. She remained No. 1 throughout the year, claiming a second straight US Open title, this time without losing a single set. She took another tour championship by defeating Navratilova to finish the year ranked No. 1 again.
The beginning of 1993 brought more of the same for Seles as she defeated Graf to win the Australian Open and started the season by winning 13 of her 14 matches. But her dominance came to a shocking end on April 30 when Gunter Parche, an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf, ran onto the court and stabbed Seles between her shoulder blades with a boning knife during her match with Maleeva. The physical wound healed after just a few weeks, but the emotional blow to Seles was immense. She did not play at all again in 1993, missed the entire 1994 season and did not take the court again professionally until August of 1995. Parche was found to be "psychologically abnormal" by the German court system, and given two years probation, but did not serve any time in jail. When this news reached Seles, she vowed to never play in Germany again.
Given an injury waiver, Seles finished 1993 eighth overall and was not ranked for the 1994 season. She returned to the court for the Rogers Cup in 1995 and won the title, regaining the No. 1 ranking in the process. She followed this with a trip to the finals of the US Open where she lost a wild match against Graf 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-3. With her points secured from 1993, she once again finished the year ranked No. 1.
To the delight of her fans and ranking among the feel-good stories of the year, Seles triumphed the following January at the Australian Open, taking the Aussie title for the fourth time. Alas, it would be her final Grand Slam crown, leaving tennis fans only able to wonder what truly might have been accomplished by the woman who racked up eight Grand Slam crowns before her 20th birthday.
Seles remained No. 1 for most of 1996, losing to Graf in the US Open finals, and ultimately falling to No. 2 after falling in the semifinals in Chicago in late October. Seles finished 1997 ranked fifth overall, missing the early part of the season. She won titles at Los Angeles, Tokyo and Toronto, but failed to reach a Grand Slam final.
She finished sixth overall in 1998, reaching the finals of the French Open but losing to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario after defeating No.1 Martina Hingis in the semifinals. She was sixth again at the end of 1999, playing the Australian Open for the first time since 1996 and reaching the semifinals. She reached the semifinals at the French Open, losing to Graf, and the quarterfinals at the US Open, defeated by an up-and-coming Serena Williams.
Seles rallied to finish fourth overall in 2000, with three titles and a bronze medal in the Summer Olympics. She slipped back to 10th in 2001, missing both the French Open and Wimbledon with injuries. The next season, 2002, was her last in the Top 10 as she finished seventh. She reached the semifinals of her old favorite, the Australian Open, won at Doha and Madrid, and reached the quarterfinals of the other three Grand Slam events. Her run of Top 10 finishes finally came to an end in 2003 as injuries and layoffs cost her. Her last tournament was the French Open, where she fell in the first round to Nadia Petrova.
Grand Slam Tournaments Won
Singles (9): Australian Open (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996); French Open (1990, 1991, 1992); US Open (1991, 1992).
Year-End Singles Rankings: 1988 - 86th; 1989 - 6th; 1990 - 2nd; 1991 - 1st; 1992 - 1st; 1993 - 8th; 1995 - 1st; 1996 - 2nd; 1997 - 5th; 1998 - 6th; 1999 -6th; 2000 - 4th; 2001 - 10th; 2002 - 7th; 2003 - 60th.
Personal
Began playing tennis at the age of five. At age 11 she moved from Yugoslavia to the United States so she could enroll in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. While she was recovering from her 1993 stabbing, an Australian band called the Young Elders sent her their song "Fly Monica Fly." She met the band after she won the 1996 Australian Open, and they changed their name to The Monicas. Tennis Magazine has ranked her as the 13th greatest player - male or female - of all time. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hallf of Fame in 2009. She acts as a Goodwill Ambassador and in 2009, she released her autobiography "Getting A Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self".
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