WTA: Monica Seles - "I never hated the sport"
Monica Seles was possibly the strongest competitor of the great Steffi Graf in the 1990s. The knife attack on her at the clay court tournament in Hamburg in 1993 remains a particularly tragic memory. What is the Croatian doing today 30 years later?
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit:
May 04, 2023, 08:16 pm
It was probably one of the greatest tragedies in tennis when, on April 30, 1993, the mentally ill Günter Parche assassinated Monica Seles. The fanatical Steffi Graf fan stabbed a knife in the back of the German superstar's big competitor when changing sides. An understandable turning point in Seles' successful career followed - although the physical wounds were soon healed, her psyche took much longer to heal.
In 1995 the lady from Novi Sad managed to return to the WTA Tour and a year later won her ninth and last Grand Slam triumph of her career. Nevertheless: There will probably always be the question - if the now deceased Prache had not carried out his attack, would there have been more possible for Seles?
Privately closely connected to Munich
The American by choice (Florida), who incidentally also has a Hungarian passport, does not have to and should not ask herself this question, even 30 years later. First of all, such purely theoretical questions rarely make you happy, on the other hand, the 49-year-old can trust in a thoroughly meaningful and stable life. Seles is often booked as a motivational speaker, offers help for people with eating disorders and has a big heart for dogs, which she takes care of with passion.
Ok, hand on heart - the author of these lines has not yet dared to approach the romance novels from her pen, which are apparently also located in the tennis milieu from time to time, but we may also be missing out on something big. Seles has been married to 81-year-old billionaire Tom Golisano since 2014 - probably not because of the money.
In terms of tennis, the South Slav never returned to Germany after 1993. Privately, however, she is particularly connected to Munich, where her best friend lives. The former world number one still likes to work the yellow felt ball to this day, as she reported in an interview in 2022: "I never hated the sport after I stopped."