Monica Seles' Hall of Fame Career

Monica Seles' Hall of Fame Career

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Monica Seles was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 11 in Newport, R.I. Here's a look back her career, which Seles described as having ''a lot of highs and a lot of lows. One of things that always kept me going was my love of the game.''

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Seles' father and coach, Karolj, raised a tennis prodigy who went on to win 53 singles titles (including nine Grand Slams), spend 178 weeks at No. 1 and make $14.9 million. In her prime, which was cut short by a stabbing incident, the intense, focused, two-tone-grunting left-hander from Yugoslavia dominated with powerful two-fisted ground strokes from both sides.

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In April 1989, not long after turning pro, the 15-year-old Seles upset top-seeded and three-time defending champion Chris Evert 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to win the Virgina Slims of Houston. ''I don't see why she can't keep progressing and be in the top 10 or the top five,'' Evert said after the match.

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On the heels of tournament victories in Italy (where she dismantled Martina Navratilova 6-1, 6-1 in the final) and Germany (where she defeated Steffi Graf in the final), the 16-year-old Seles won the 1990 French Open to become the youngest winner at Roland Garros. Seles beat Jennifer Capriati, 14, in the semifinals and Graf in the final, and left Roland Garros with a 32-match winning streak.

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A few months after winning her first French Open (and getting the first of her three <i>SI</i> covers), Seles outlasted reigning U.S. Open champion Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a historic final at the 1990 Virginia Slim Championships, capping a year in which she went 54-6 and climbed to No. 2 in the rankings. The 3-hour, 47-minute match was the first women's five-setter in 87 years.

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Seles ascended to No. 1 for the first time in March 1991. It was her most dominant year: Seles won all three majors she played (the Australian, French and U.S. Opens), missing Wimbledon because of shin splints. She played one of the most memorable matches of her career in '91, outslugging 15-year-old Jennifer Capriati 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (3) in the U.S. Open semifinals.

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Seles won three more majors in 1992, but she also was dealt what she calls the toughest loss of her career. In what turned out to be her only Wimbledon final, Seles lost to Steffi Graf 6-2, 6-1. The defeat ended a 41-match winning streak at Grand Slams for Seles, who didn't grunt at all in the final after being criticized for it throughout the tournament.

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From January 1991 to January '93, Seles won seven of the eight majors she entered. The last of those victories came at the '93 Australian Open, where she rallied past Steffi Graf 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

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In April 1993, during a changeover in a quarterfinal match at a French Open tune-up event in Hamburg, Germany, a deranged German man stabbed Seles in the left shoulder with a 9-inch boning knife. Gunter Parche later claimed he acted because he ''could not bear'' seeing Seles hold the No. 1 ranking instead of Steffi Graf.

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Seles was back training within a couple of months of the stabbing, but she described her life as ''darkness everywhere ... total depression.'' She wound up sitting out 27 months before returning to competitive tennis with an exhibition victory against Martina Navratilova in July 1995. A few weeks later, in the first tour event of her comeback, Seles, then 21, won an event in Canada.

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Seles won the last of her nine Grand Slam championships at the 1996 Australian Open, which co-No. 1 Steffi Graf missed with a foot injury. An emotional Seles beat Anke Huber in the final for her fourth title in her final four appearances in the tournament.

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Seles became a U.S. citizen in 1994 and helped the United States win three Fed Cup titles (including in 2000 with Lisa Raymond, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati). She also won a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

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Even with the '96 Australian Open title, Seles, in her words, was ''not even close'' to the same player after the incident in Hamburg. Struggling with her weight and hampered by a foot injury, Seles' final WTA match was a first-round loss at the 2003 French Open (though she didn't officially retire until 2008). In her recently released book, <i>Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self</i>, Seles revealed that she suffered from a food addiction after the stabbing incident and her father's subsequent cancer diagnosis.

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Said Seles at her Hall of Fame induction: "I would like to thank all my tennis fans who were there from Day One, when I was No. 1, through my stabbing, and my comeback."