Country SFR Yugoslavia (1988-1992)
Yugoslavia (1992-1993)
United States (from 1995)
Residence Orlando, Florida
Date of birth December 2, 1973 (age 36)
Place of birth Novi Sad, Serbia (formerYugoslavia)
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Plays Left; Two-handed both sides
Monica Seles (Hungarian: Szeles M?nika, Serbian:Monika Sele? / Моника Селеш, pronounced, born December 2, 1973) is a former World No. 1professional tennis player and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) to Hungarian parents and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994. She also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007. She won nine Grand Slam singles titles, winning eight of them while a citizen of Yugoslavia and one while a citizen of the United States.
Monica was born on December 2, 1973 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia to parents Karolj and Esther Seles. Monica is the youngest of two children. Zoltбn, her brother, was 8 years old when Monica was born. Tennis first caught the eye of Monica when she was six years old, because Zoltбn became interested in the sport and was bringing home cool looking trophy's. Tennis was not a popular sport in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. At the time, Karolj had to drive to Italy nearly 10 hours away just to pick up racquet's for his children. Novi Sad only had 4 clay tennis courts to play on, which in turn made it nearly impossible for Monica & Zoltбn to get a court to practice. So Monica, Zoltбn, & their father practiced a lot in the parking lot or up against the wall of their apartment complex. It all started in that parking lot in Novi Sad.
At the time, Karolj worked as an artist/cartoonist to make money to support his family and Esther also worked to support the household. To make tennis fun for Monica, he used to draw Tom & Jerry cartoons on the tennis balls. He made tennis fun for her! While Monica was still learning; Zoltбn after only a short time playing, became a top junior player in Europe. This was just the beginning of Monica's tennis career, this little girl who just loved to hit the ball. Little did they know at this time that Monica would go on to be one of tennis' all time greats.
By the time she was 8, she had become the number 1 junior player in Yugoslavia. In the following two years, she had become the best junior player in the world.
Nick Bolletteri first saw 12 year old Monica at the Sport Goofy tournament at Disney world in Florida. Nick and the Seles family met shortly afterwards and he invited her to come train with him for 2 weeks at his academy in Florida (for her to see what his academy was like). Unfortunately it cost a lot of money to attend and the Seles' were not ready for that. But one year later, Nick and Monica met up again and he offered Monica a scholarship to come train with him in Florida. At this time, Monica was the #1 junior player in the world and had already won the Junior World Championships a couple of times. This time he offered for her to come train at his academy for free - he just wanted her to train there no matter what, She was too good to pass.
At the age of 13, Monica and her brother left Novi Sad for Florida. While in Florida and out of her father's supervision & coaching, Monica began to loose part of her game. Nick and his coaches were teaching Monica to use the then "normal" one hander instead of the 2 hands off both sides which was Monica's style. Five months later, Karolj came to visit and to see how things were going. Needless to say when he discovered how they had tried to change the way Monica played, he was outraged. He told the coaches "...this is how she plays." and that he would stay and work with Monica. By 1987, she had gotten her ground strokes back and was back on track winning again by using her natural stroke of 2 hands off both sides.
Monica played her first amateur match in March of 1988 at the age of 14, just for experience. She won 7-6, 6-3! At the match, Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini, and Chris Evert (who was to play Monica next if she were to win), all came to watch and see who was this girl! Monica lost to Evert in the next round, but showed the world that this was only the beginning!
She became the youngest-ever champion at the 1990 French Open at the age of 16. She was the World No. 1 player in the women's game during 1991 and 1992, but in 1993 she was forced out of the sport for more than two years following an on-court attack in which a German spectator stabbed her in the back with a 10-inch-long knife. She enjoyed some success after returning to the tour in 1995, including a Grand Slam singles title at the 1996 Australian Open, but was unable to consistently reproduce her best form. Seles played her last professional match at the 2003 French Open, but her official retirement announcement was not issued until February 2008.
Seles was listed as the 13th greatest player of all time (men and women) by (U.S.) Tennis magazine and was also one of 15 women named by Australian Tennismagazine as the greatest champions of the last 30 years (players were listed chronologically).
Seles's career was affected by the stabbing incident; her trajectory was indicative of continuing future greatness. During the height of her career (1990 French Open through the 1993 Australian Open), she won 8 of the 11 Grand Slam singles tournaments she contested.
Seles' outfit at the Tennis Hall of Fame Museum at the Newport Casino,Newport, Rhode Island
Until her loss to Martina Hingis at the 1999 Australian Open, Seles had a perfect record at the event (330), 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. 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 US Open, 1992 Australian Open, and 1992 French Open. Seles was also 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 the four consecutive times she played the tournament: 1974, 1975, 1979, and 1980; in 2007, Justine Henin won her third consecutive French Open singles title.) With eight Grand Slam singles titles before her 20th birthday, Seles holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a teenager.
Shortly after her retirement, Sports Illustrated writer Jon Wertheim summed up her later career:
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.
Seles was a popular player, winning the inaugural Sanex Hero of the Year award in 2002. This award was voted by fans around the world.
Seles was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009.
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