Monica Seles[a] (born December 2, 1973) is a Serbian–American former professionaltennis player. She was ranked as theworld No. 1 in women's singles by theWomen's Tennis Association (WTA) for 178 weeks (sixth-most of all time), and finished as theyear-end No. 1 three times. Seles won 53WTA Tour-level singles titles, including ninemajors: eight as a teenager while representing Yugoslavia and the final one while representing the United States.
A teen phenomenon, Seles became the youngest-everFrench Open champion in1990 at the age of 16. She went on to dominate the women's circuit in1991 and1992, compiling a total of eight major championships while still a teenager. However, on April 30, 1993, Seles was the victim of an on-court attack when an obsessed fan of Seles' rivalSteffi Graf stabbed Seles in the back with a knife as she was sitting down between games. Seles did not play professional tennis for over two years following the stabbing, struggling with depression and an eating disorder.[3] After returning in 1995, Seles claimed a ninth major championship at the1996 Australian Open, but was unable to consistently produce her best tennis. She played her last professional match at the2003 French Open.
Seles was born in Yugoslavia, Novi Sad (Serbia) to anethnic Hungarian family. Her parents are Ester and Karolj[9] (Eszter and Károly in Hungarian)[10] and she has an older brother, Zoltan (Zoltán in Hungarian). She began playing tennis at age five, coached by her father, a professional cartoonist employed for decades at theDnevnik andMagyar Szó newspapers,[11] who drew pictures for her to make her tennis more fun. He is responsible for developing her two-handed style for both the forehand and backhand.[12] Later, her coach wasJelena Genčić. In 1985, at the age of 11, she won theJunior Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, catching the attention of tennis coachNick Bollettieri. In early 1986, Seles and her brother Zoltan moved from Yugoslavia to the United States, and Seles enrolled at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, where she trained for two years and continued to practice until March 1990. Nine months after their arrival at the academy, Seles' mother and father joined her and Zoltan in Florida.
Seles played her first professional tournament as an amateur in 1988 at age 14. The following year she turned professional on February 13, 1989, and joined the professional tour full-time, winning her first career title atHouston in May 1989, where she beat the soon-to-retireChris Evert in the final. A month later, Seles reached the semifinals of her firstGrand Slam singles tournament at the French Open, losing to then-world No. 1 Graf. Seles finished her first year on the tour ranked world No. 6.
After a slow start at the beginning of the season, Seles went on a 36-match winning streak and won 6 consecutive tournaments starting in Miami at theLipton Player's Championships.[13] During that winning streak she also won the U.S. Hard Court Championships, theEckerd Open,[14] theItalian Open,[15] and theLufthansa Cup in Berlin, Germany, defeatingSteffi Graf in the final in straight sets.[16] Seles then won her firstGrand Slam singles title at the1990 French Open. Facing world No. 1 Graf in the final, Seles saved four set points in a first-set tiebreaker, which she won 8–6, and went on to take the match in straight sets.[17] In doing so, she became the youngest-ever French Open singles Champion at the age of 16 years, 6 months.[18] Her winning streak was stopped byZina Garrison atWimbledon in the quarterfinals, where Seles had a match point before Garrison eventually won 9–7 in the third set.[19] Seles then won theVirginia Slims of Los Angeles title againstMartina Navratilova[20] and then defeated Navratilova again in winning the Oakland California tournament, in straight sets.[21] She also won the 1990 year-endVirginia Slims Championships, defeatingGabriela Sabatini in five sets (in the first five-set women's match since the1901 US National Championships), becoming the youngest to ever win the season-ending championships.[22] She finished the year ranked world number 2.[13]
1991 was the first of two years in which Seles dominated the women's tour. She started out by winning theAustralian Open in January, beatingJana Novotná in the final.[23] In March, she replaced Graf as the world No. 1.[24] She then successfully defended her French Open title, beating the former youngest-ever winner,Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, in the final.[25] Unable to play atWimbledon, suffering from shin splints,[26] Seles took a six-week break. But she was back in time for theUS Open, which she won by beatingMartina Navratilova in the final, her third Grand Slam title of the year, to cement her position at the top of the world rankings.[27] She also won the year-endVirginia Slims Championships for the second consecutive time, defeating Navratilova in four sets.[28] At the end of season, Seles had won 10 out of the 16 tournaments she entered (reaching the final of every tournament that she entered that year).[28] She ended the year as the No. 1 ranked player in the world.
1992 was an equally dominant year. Seles successfully defended her titles at theAustralian Open, theFrench Open, and theUS Open. She also reached her first-ever final atWimbledon, but lost to Graf.[29] During Wimbledon, Seles encountered difficulty because of her habit of grunting or shrieking loudly when hitting shots. Her quarterfinal opponentNathalie Tauziat was the first to complain to the chair umpire about it.[30] During the third set of her semi-final match againstMartina Navratilova, Navratilova also complained to the chair umpire about the grunting after Seles went up a break at 4–2. Seles ended up losing the game and the break, but broke back and closed out the match.[31]
From January 1991 through February 1993, 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 (98%) 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%) and collected 30 titles.[32] She once again ended the year as the #1 ranked player in the world.
Seles was the top-ranked women's player heading into 1993, having won theFrench Open for three consecutive years and both theUS Open andAustralian Open in consecutive years. In January 1993, Seles defeated Graf in the final of theAustralian Open, which, at that time, was her third win in fourGrand Slam finals against Graf.[33] She then won theVirginia Slims of Chicago over Martina Navratilova in three sets.[34] This was the last title that Seles won before the attack in Hamburg, Germany.
On April 30, 1993, during a quarterfinal match againstMagdalena Maleeva at theCitizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany, a German man named Günter Parche, an obsessed fan of Seles's rival Graf, ran from the middle of the crowd to the edge of the court during a break between games and stabbed Seles with aboning knife between her shoulder blades, to a depth of 0.5 in (1.3 cm).[35] She was quickly taken to a hospital. Her physical injuries took several weeks to heal, but she stayed away from competitive tennis for more than two years. Initially, there was speculation that the attack might have been politically motivated because Seles was from Yugoslavia. She was known to have received death threats in relation to theYugoslav Wars. However, German authorities were quick to rule this out, describing her attacker as confused and possibly mentally disturbed.[3] According to police, Parche intended to severely injure Seles so that she would be unable to play tennis and Graf would become the world No. 1 player again.[32]
Parche was charged following the incident, but spent less than 6 months in pre-trial detention.[36] In his trial, he was found to be psychologically abnormal, and was sentenced to two years' probation and psychological treatment. The incident prompted a significant increase in the level of security at tennis tour events.[3] At that year'sWimbledon, the players' seats were positioned with their backs to the umpire's chair, rather than the spectators. Seles, however, disputed the effectiveness of these measures. She was quoted in 2011 as saying, "From the time I was stabbed, I think the security hasn't changed".[37] Seles vowed never to play tennis in Germany again, disenchanted by the German legal system. "What people seem to be forgetting is that this man stabbed me intentionally and he did not serve any sort of punishment for it ... I would not feel comfortable going back. I don't foresee that happening."[38] In a later article,Tennis reported that Parche was living in nursing homes due to additional health problems.[8] He died in a nursing home in August 2022 at the age of 68.[39]
Graf visited Seles while she was hospitalized.[40]Young Elders, a band fromMelbourne, Australia, sent their song called "Fly Monica Fly" to Seles while she was recuperating from the stabbing incident. She later said that the song provided inspiration to her at that time, and subsequently met the band (who later changed their name to the Monicas) following her victory at the Australian Open in 1996.[41] The stabbing incident is the subject ofDan Bern's 1998 tribute to Seles,"Monica". Additionally, American bandMajesty Crush paid tribute with "Seles" from the 1993 albumLove-15.
The WTA suggested that Seles'sNo. 1 ranking be preserved due to her absence from the stabbing, but the ranking was ultimately not preserved.[42] A vote was held at a tournament in Rome in 1993, and 16 of the 17 top players who voted rejected the proposal – Graf did not participate in the tournament and was thus absent from voting. Of those who did vote, onlyGabriela Sabatini, who abstained, did not reject the idea of freezing Seles's ranking until her return.[43] Seles did not play tennis for two years and suffered from depression as well as an eating disorder as a result of the attack.[32]
After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1994, Seles returned to the tour in August 1995. In the run-up to her comeback, the WTA presidentMartina Navratilova proposed that Seles be reinstated alongside Graf as joint number one.[42] The WTA did so despite some opposition from players includingArantxa Sánchez Vicario andGigi Fernández, whose tournament placements would suffer greatly by suddenly being placed behind Seles.[42][44] Graf supported Seles' co-ranking, but not the additional proposal that Seles' co-ranking not be determined by the minimum participation of 12 tournaments a year required of everyone else. Graf felt that would give Seles an unfair advantage in the rankings.[42] Seles won her first comeback tournament, theCanadian Open, beatingAmanda Coetzer in the final and setting a tournament record for the fewest games dropped by the champion throughout the tournament (14). The following month at theUS Open, Seles reached the final defeating world No. 10Anke Huber, No. 4 Jana Novotná, and No. 3Conchita Martínez (all in straight sets), but lost to Graf in the final.
In January 1996, Seles won her fourth Australian Open, beating Anke Huber in the final. Her pivotal match was the semi-final versus rising American starChanda Rubin, who led her 5–2 in the final set, and had two break points to lead 5–1. Seles came back from two points from defeat to triumph and reach the final. This was to be Seles' lastGrand Slam title, as she struggled to recapture her best form on a consistent basis. Seles was the runner-up at the US Open to Graf again in 1996. Seles' last Grand Slam final came at the French Open in 1998, just a few weeks after the death of her father and former coach, Karolj, from cancer. In the run to the final she had defeated world No. 3Jana Novotná in three sets and world No. 1Martina Hingis in straight sets, but lost to Sánchez Vicario in the three-set final.
While she did not reach anotherGrand Slam singles final, she did consistently reach the quarter-final and semi-final stages in those tournaments and was a fixture in the WTA Tour's top 10. In 2002, her last full year on the tour, she finished the year ranked world No. 7, defeatedVenus Williams,Martina Hingis,Jennifer Capriati,Justine Henin,Maria Sharapova,Kim Clijsters, andLindsay Davenport, and reached at least the quarter-finals at each Grand Slam tournament.
Seles competed at the1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where she beat Sabatini in a third round match before losing to Jana Novotná in the quarter-finals. Four years later, at the2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Seles won her first Olympic medal, a bronze in singles. She defeatedJelena Dokic in the bronze medal match, after pushing eventual gold medalist Venus Williams to a tough three setter in the semis, losing 6–3 in the final set. Seles helped the U.S. team win theFed Cup in 1996, 1999, and 2000.
In the spring of 2003, Seles sustained a foot injury. She was forced to withdraw during the second set of a match againstNadia Petrova at theItalian Open. Then, a couple of weeks later and still injured, she lost in straight sets to the same player in the first round of the2003 French Open. It was the only time she ever lost a first-round match at a Grand Slam. She never again played an official tour match.[45]
In February 2005, Seles played two exhibition matches in New Zealand against Navratilova. Despite losing both matches, she played competitively and announced that she could return to the game early in 2006; however, she did not do so. She played three exhibition matches against Navratilova in 2007. On April 5, she defeated Navratilova in Houston, Texas on clay.[46] On September 14, Seles defeated Navratilova on an indoor court in New Orleans. On September 16, she beat her on clay in Bucharest.[47]
In December 2007, Seles told the press thatLindsay Davenport's successful return to the tour had inspired her to consider her own limited comeback to playGrand Slam tournaments and the major warm-up events for those tournaments. However, on February 14, 2008, Seles announced her official retirement from professional tennis.[48] In January 2009, Seles was elected to theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame.[49]
Seles is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.[50][51][52] In 2012, Tennis Channel created a list of the100 greatest tennis players. Seles was listed at #19.
Seles won eight Grand Slam titles during her teenage years. However, her career was greatly affected by the stabbing incident. Some involved with the sport have declared that Seles could have become the most accomplished female player ever. In an article written 20 years after Seles was stabbed, Jonathan Scott ofTennis.com stated, "Would Monica Seles have been the greatest female tennis player ever? The world will never know."[8] In a 2013 interview, Martina Navratilova theorized that if Seles had not been stabbed, "We'd be talking about Monica with the most Grand Slam titles [ahead of]Margaret Court or Steffi Graf."[7] Mary Joe Fernandez declared that Seles would have at least doubled her Grand Slam championship tally, had she not been attacked.[7] Tim Adams ofThe Guardian stated that Seles would have become "the greatest female tennis player ever to pick up a racket."[6]
During the height of her career (the 1990 French Open through the 1993 Australian Open), she won eight of the 11 Grand Slam singles tournaments she contested. With eight Grand Slam singles titles before her 20th birthday, Seles holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a teenager in the Open Era.
Until her loss toMartina Hingis at the1999 Australian Open, Seles had a perfect record at the event (33–0), which is the longest undefeated streak for this tournament (although Margaret Court won 38 consecutive matches there from 1960 to 1968 after losing a match in 1959). It also marked her first defeat in Australia, having won theSydney tournament in 1996.
Shortly after her retirement,Sports Illustrated writerJon Wertheim stated:
Yet, transformed from champion to tragedienne, Seles became far more popular than she was while winning all those titles. It became impossible to root against her. At first, out of sympathy. Then, because she revealed herself to be so thoroughly thoughtful, graceful, dignified. When she quietly announced her retirement last week at age 34, she exited as perhaps the most adored figure in the sport's history. As happy endings go, one could do worse.[53]
She was inducted into theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame on July 11, 2009. In 2011, Seles was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" byTime.[4]
Seles was a baseline player who was known for her power-based, highly aggressive playing style. Her unconventional double-handed forehand and backhand were both hit flat, with relentless speed, power, and depth. As a result of her two-handed groundstrokes, she could create sharp angles around the court, and hit winners at will.[54] She was an aggressive return player, and would stand within the baseline to return serves. Further strengths included her fitness, speed, and court coverage, allowing her to be an excellent retriever, and hit winners from any position on the court.[55] Prior to her stabbing, Seles' greatest strengths were her powerful groundstrokes and mental toughness, with her being described as one of the toughest players to beat on the WTA tour.[56] Seles was also known for accompanying her shots with loudgrunting, and was frequently criticized for doing so.[57] Due to her aggressive power game, she is considered one of the inspirations for modern WTA players such asSerena andVenus Williams,Maria Sharapova, andVictoria Azarenka.
In the bookFacing Monica Seles, Chris Evert is quoted saying Seles "changed the whole complexion of tennis, brought another level to the game. She was a game changer."
In the early 1990s, Seles signed a $4-million endorsement contract withFila to promote its footwear and tennis apparel.[58] She used aPrince original graphite racquet on court.[59] In August of the 1990 season, Seles switched to aYonex racquet.
When she returned to the tour in 1995 after the stabbing, Seles wore apparel byNike and used a Yonex racquet on court.
In the 2000s, Seles wore apparel by Yonex and used Yonex SRQ Ti-800 Pro Long racquet on court.[60]
Seles was born and raised inNovi Sad,Yugoslavia (now Serbia) to anethnic Hungarian family. She became a naturalized American citizen in 1994, and she received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007.[61][62] She received honorary citizenship of Novi Sad in 1993.[63]
On April 21, 2009, Seles released her memoirGetting A Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self, which chronicles her bout with depression andbinge eating disorder (BED) after her stabbing, her father's cancer diagnosis and eventual death, her journey back to the game, and a life beyond tennis.[64]
Seles is married to businessmanTom Golisano,[65] who is 32 years her senior. They began dating in 2009.[66][67] The two announced their engagement on June 5, 2014.[68]
As of 2015, Seles was a paid spokesperson forShire, the makers of the first drug approved by theFood and Drug Administration to treatbinge eating disorder, to raise awareness of the disorder she has suffered from since she was a young adult. Seles would eat normal amounts of food at meals, and then secretly eat large amounts of junk food when she was alone.[69]
Seles was diagnosed withmyasthenia gravis in 2022, and she made public her battle with the disease in August 2025.[70]
In 1993,Seinfeld featured an episode ("The Lip Reader") in which the creators fictionalized Seles's return to the US Open after her stabbing. In 1996, Seles made a guest appearance in the TV sitcomThe Nanny.[71] She also appeared on the TV seriesDancing with the Stars in 2008 as one of the contestants.[72]
World No. 1 March 11, 1991 – August 4, 1991 August 12, 1991 – August 18, 1991 September 9, 1991 – June 6, 1993 August 15, 1995 – November 3, 1996(with S. Graf) November 18, 1996 – November 24, 1996(with S. Graf)
