Monica Seles

Monica Seles (born December 2, 1973) is a former world No. 1 tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. She won nine major singles titles, eight of them as a teenager while representing Yugoslavia, and the final one while representing the United States.In 1990, Seles became the youngest-ever French Open champion at the age of 16. She went on to win eight major singles titles before her 20th birthday and was the year-end No. 1 in 1991 and 1992. However, on April 30, 1993, while playing a match, she was the victim of an on-court attack when an obsessed fan of Seles' rival Steffi Graf stabbed Seles in the back with a knife as she was sitting down between games. Seles did not return to tennis for over two years after the stabbing. Though she enjoyed some success after returning in 1995, including victory at the 1996 Australian Open, she was unable to consistently produce her best tennis. She played her last professional match at the 2003 French Open but did not officially retire until February 2008. Regarded by many as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Seles was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time. Several players and historians have stated that Seles had the potential to become the most accomplished female player of all time had she not been stabbed. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009. Early life and career Seles was born in Yugoslavia to an ethnic Hungarian family. Her parents are Ester and Karolj (Eszter and Károly in Hungarian) and she has an older brother, Zoltán. She began playing tennis at age five, coached by her father, a professional cartoonist employed for decades at the Dnevnik and Magyar Szó newspapers, 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. Later, her coach was Jelena Genčić. In 1985, at the age of 11, she won the Junior Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, catching the attention of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. In early 1986, Seles and her brother Zoltán 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 Zoltán in Florida. Seles played her first professional tournament as an amateur in 1988 at age 14.