Monica Seles, Tennis Player, - Biography,
Hungarian-American tennis player.
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight 154
lb (70 kg)
Born December 2, 1973, Novi Sad, Serbia, Yugoslavia
Turned Pro
1989 Plays Left; Two-handed both sides Career Prize Money $14,891,762
Singles
Career record: 595-122 Career titles: 53 Highest ranking: No. 1 (March 11, 1991)
Grand
Slam results Australian Open W (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996) French Open W (1990, 1991,
1992) Wimbledon F (1992) U.S. Open W (1991, 1992)
Doubles Career record: 89-45
Career titles: 6 Highest ranking: No. 16 (April 22, 1991)
Olympic medal record
Women's Tennis Bronze 2000 Sydney Singles
Monica Seles is a Hungarian-American
professional tennis player. Seles has won nine Grand Slam singles titles playing
for Yugoslavia & the United States. 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 & 1992.
Monika Seleš Hungarian: Szeles Mónika)
was born to an ethnic Hungarian family in Novi Sad, SFR Yugoslavia (present-day
Vojvodina, Serbia).
Considered to be one of the best players of all time, Monica
began playing tennis at the age of six, coached by her father Károly Seleš.
She won her first tournament at the age of nine, despite not fully understanding
the scoring system of the game & having only a vague idea of whether she was
leading or trailing her opponents during matches. In 1985 at the age of 11, she
won the Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, & caught the attention of
tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. In 1986, the Seleš family moved from Yugoslavia
to the United States, & Monica 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 & 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.
With punishing, sharp-angled two-fisted forehand & backhand
shots & a dominating return of serve, Seles is considered by many to be the
first "power player" in the women's game, paving the way for subsequent
players like Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, & Maria Sharapova. She was
also well-known for grunting loudly on court. On a few occasions, her opponents
claimed that the grunting was distracting & prevented them from hearing the
ball make contact with her racquet.
Seles won her first Grand Slam singles
title at the French Open in 1990. Facing World No. 1 Graf in the final, Seles
saved four set-points in a first-set tie-breaker, which she won 8-6, & went
on to take the match in straight-sets. In doing so, she became the youngest-ever
French Open champion at age 16 years, 6 months.
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, & won it beating
Martina Navrátilová in the final to cement her position at the top
of the world rankings. She also helped Yugoslavia win the Hopman Cup that year
& 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, & 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 &
lost 6-2, 6-1.
During the period from January 1991 to February 1993, Seles
won 22 titles & 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), Seles had a win-loss record of 231-25 (90.2%
winning percentage) & collected 30 titles. Only Evert had a better first four
years in terms of winning percentage (91.1% from 1971 to 1974) & titles (34)
in the open era. However, Seles was unable to maintain that win percentage for
the remainder of her career.
Seles was the top women's player heading into
1993. In January 1993, Seles defeated Graf in the final of the Australian Open,
which was Seles' 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
& plunged a steak knife between Seles's shoulder blades. She let out a piercing
scream & 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 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 & was instead sentenced to two years' probation
& psychological treatment. The incident prompted a significant increase in
the level of security at tour events.
After the incident, Graf re-established
herself as the leading player on the women's tour & regained the World No.
1 ranking. During her layoff from competitive tennis, Seles became a United States
citizen on May 17, 1994.
Seles returned to the tour in August 1995 & 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, 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 & long-term coach Karolj being stricken
by cancer & 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 & world No. 1 Martina Hingis in straight sets before losing
to Sánchez Vicario in three sets, a match that even Sánchez Vicario
said Seles should have won.
After becoming a U.S. citizen, Seles helped the
U.S. team win the Fed Cup in 1996 & 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 & announced that
she could return to the game early in 2006. She has not done so, however.
She
was listed as the 13th greatest player of all time (men & women) by Tennis
magazine & was also one of 15 women named by Australian Tennis magazine as
the greatest champions of the last 30 years (players were listed chronologically
in Australian tennis Magazine). 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.
Seles is single & lives in Florida.
Grand
Slam singles finals
Wins (9)
Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in
Final
1990 French Open Steffi Graf 7-6(6), 6-4 1991 Australian Open Jana Novotná
5-7, 6-3, 6-1 1991 French Open (2) Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario 6-3, 6-4 1991
U.S. Open Martina Navratilova 7-6(1), 6-1 1992 Australian Open (2) Mary Joe Fernandez
6-2, 6-3 1992 French Open (3) Steffi Graf 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 1992 U.S. Open (2) Arantxa
Sánchez-Vicario 6-3, 6-3 1993 Australian Open (3) Steffi Graf 4-6, 6-3,
6-2 1996 Australian Open (4) Anke Huber 6-4, 6-1
Runner-ups (4) Year Championship
Opponent in Final Score in Final 1992 Wimbledon Steffi Graf 6-2, 6-1 1995 U.S.
Open Steffi Graf 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-3 1996 U.S. Open Steffi Graf 7-5, 6-4 1998 French
Open Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario 7-6(5), 0-6, 6-2
· Seles was
the first female tennis player to win her first six Grand Slam singles finals:
1990 French Open, 1991 Australian Open, 1991 French Open, 1991 U.S. Open, 1992
Australian Open, & 1992 French Open.
· Seles won the first five
set women's singles match in many years, in 1990 against Gabriela Sabatini at
the year end WTA Tour Championships.
· Until her loss to Martina Hingis
at the 1999 Australian Open, Seles had a perfect record at the event (33-0), which
is the longest undefeated streak for this tournament. It also marked her first
defeat in Australia, having won the Sydney Tournament in 1996.
· Seles
was the first female player since Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling in 1937 to win the
women's singles title three consecutive years at the French Open. Chris Evert,
however, won the title four consecutive times she played the tournament (1974,
1975, 1979, & 1980).
· Seles' final against Martina Navratilova
at the 1991 U.S. Open was the only all left-handed women's singles final of a
Grand Slam event.
· The age gap between Seles (17 years old) &
Navratilova (34 years old) at the 1991 U.S. Open was the largest in a Grand Slam
women's singles final.
· Seles appeared on the sitcom "The Nanny"
as herself.
· Seles won the inaugural Sanex Hero of the Year award
in 2002. This award was voted by fans around the world.
· Singer/songwriter
Dan Bern has a song about Seles on his "Fifty Eggs" album entitled "Monica."
This site was written in February 2007
Some pictures of Monica Seles
Picture of her jumping and hitting the ball
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