Monica Seles - Tennis legend always starts from the number

"Why is it always me?", Seles has absolutely reason to ask for so. But at the age of 51, after many storms struck, she learned that complaining of the responsibility did not bring anything. The only thing this former tennis player needs is to keep himself floating on the water and find a new shore. "As I often told the young people I instructed: The ball bounced, and you have to adapt ", Seles shared.

is also what she is doing, once more, from 2022, when diagnosed with myasthenia gravis - a rare neuropectory disease, causing muscle fatigue and weakness. There is no cure, this disease makes even hair drying a challenge for Seles - who once launched hand and left -handed shots - always equal to both hands - with unusual power. From a certain angle, it is like a player who always has to start the journey to conquer after each game, every set, every match. That place, she honed the powerful tennis style that her father used to teach in a parking lot in her home country, with a tense net between two cars. At that time, Seles was only 12 years old, never far from her parents even one night, not knowing an English word, and having to grow suddenly.

A few years later was another revolution: from Monika Seles, she became Monica Seles. At the age of 15, she debuted in a professional arena. A year later, she was a professional player. At the age of 16 and 6 months, she lowered the legendary Steffi Graf in the Roland Garros final, to become the youngest Grand Slam champion. The next year, at the age of 17, Seles became the number one worldwide player in the history of that time.

"Fame, money, attention has changed everything in my life. Everyone treats another friend, and it's hard for a 16 -year -old girl to face everything. It's strange when at the age of 16, you create jobs for others. You become a 'company', but what do you know what you are, you are struggling to understand what you are, what you are struggling to understand what you want to dye your hair, what you are struggling with the week, you are struggling to understand what you are in the week. That's , "Seles said.

Seles's tennis gameplay - anticipating the opponent's intentions, the horrible shots, and strong beliefs - have become the standard that every female tennis player wants to follow. A generation that young girls imitated, held racquets like weapons and made moans when polishing. Some rivals, like Graf, felt uncomfortable with Seles' groans, but she asserted that it was a way for herself to focus, not to disturb the opponent. It is worth noting that British actor Peter Ustinov, who won two Oscars and was passionate about tennis, when he told a friend at that time: "I don't want to stay in the hotel room next to Seles on her wedding night " His name Gunther Parche, a lathe (mechanical processing) in Nordhausen, Thuringia in Germany, lived with his aunt. He went 300 km to Hamburg to see the Citizen Cup. For three days, he watched Seles everywhere: from the hotel, restaurant, to the field. Later, Seles recalled that she paid attention to the man holding the nylon bag, but could not know what was in the bag: a sausage, 3000 Mark (the old currency of Germany), a pajamas, and most importantly, was a bone knife with a tongue with a 23cm long tongue. Graf's mother comes with 100 mark to buy flowers for idols. With Parche, Seles is a great threat to Graf's dominance.

Therefore, on April 30, 1993, while changing the field in the second set of the quarterfinals with Magdalena Maleeva, when Seles was taking a sip of water, Parche pulled out a knife from her pocket and stabbed her back. Fortunately, at that moment, she slightly leaned forward to see the person who screamed as Christoph Werle, a transcript, who realized the knife was drawn before all. His screams probably saved her.

    Monica Seles was stabbed by Parche from behind 1993

Seles has never returned to Germany, including to attend the Parche trial. He was only sentenced to two years of suspended prison, not accused of murder, but only causing injury, with mitigating circumstances that were not capable of behavior. He did not have to sit in prison. But Seles suffered a much more severe sentence. But the mental shock was even worse: Seles locked himself in the house, not answering the phone. A girl who was always smiling and full of energy disappeared. "Just thinking about Hamburg, I was broken again", her father, Karolj, recalled. The attack, occurred right on the tennis court, where Seles should have been the safest - robbing all the beliefs that she built over many years of hard training. The genius girl disappeared, and Seles began to face the crisis of self -esteem. Seles fell into depression and incorrect eating disorders: She tried to fill the gap in her soul with junk food, in the middle of the night sneaking into the kitchen of chocolate biscuits, chips, pop-tarts and ice cream. "The food becomes the only way to suppress the demons in me. I can control it on the pitch, but I can't control what I eat", still confided from Seles. With Seles, the food once again became the only source of comfort. She increased to 20kg. "Tennis is associated with the image of athletes, sponsorship contracts, appearance. When I gained weight, people looked at me and thought: Why did she leave herself like that? The sponsors asked: Look at her, what happened like this? I just want to say: I am still me, other things should not be important ". 3}

At that time, publicity about psychological health was taboo in the sports world, and with Seles, the situation was even more difficult because her team was all men. She decided to isolate herself. "I am very lonely. That generation is dominated by men, all representatives and coaches are men. I have severe depression, but a strong player, it's hard to admit it to myself, let alone the outside world. The men around me do not understand the emotions, they only care about the results. So I spend a lot of time to overcome. "Do it over again". "I have to find out everything, because no one is to rely on. That gives me a power that no one can take away. I have learned how to build a healthy relationship with food." At the age of 30, she had a bundle of foot powder for three months and had to stop playing tennis. But thanks to that, she stopped eating disorders. "I thought: I will get fat. I am afraid because I know I will be very unhappy. But for the first time, I eliminated all nutritionists, coaches, advisers from my life. I realized that I had to face my own emotions " "I just hope that a young girl who enters sports will know that it would be okay if she had a problem of weight or eating disorders, and she could be open. It was still a battle, and we had to take a small step. It would be great if there were more representatives and coaches " But Seles doesn't have that. All the players in the felt ball village voted against her number one rank, except for one person: Argentina Gabriela Sabatini. That betrayal showed her the truth about her world. "It made me realize that tennis is a business. You don't have friends. But Gaby has ignored the reputation, career, money, and only cared for me as a person ".

then she returned after 837 days, in August 1995. And thanks to Martina Navratilova, now the WTA president, she was ranked number one with Graf, called "No. 1Bis ". Navratilova that day violently demanded that WTA needed to recognize Seles as the first -class world; She said that because Seles' absence was force majeure and unfairness when being deprived of the number one position due to a criminal act, not a professional reason. Interestingly, Navratilova slowed down the journey to the world's number one position ... A week, after defeating her in the final of the Virginia Slims in March 1991.

Seles attack wrote the history of tennis, and she always chose to look forward. She wants her story, and storms, will inspire those who come later. "It's hard to be friends when you are fighting for a Grand Slam title. But some players have become my friend ". One of them, according to Seles, was Petra Kvitova, twice Wimbledon champion. They have never confronted on the pitch, but their relationship bursts after Kvitova was stabbed by a bandit that broke into her house in 2016. Not tennis, but the pain they experienced has linked them. Laureus for sports programs for community benefit. On the field, she saw two balls flying instead of one. The pandemic has slowed down the diagnosis, and after two years of testing, she was determined to have myasthenia gravis, a chronic disease that only affects 150-200 people per million people worldwide.. "I have never heard of it, on the news or from anyone ," she said.

One day, Seles can still play tennis, pickleball, and take dogs for a walk. But not always. "There are actually actual days", she shared. Seles will have to adapt, this time to follow what this disease requires. And adaptation is also what everyone has to do in life. The ball bounced, and we have to see where it falls.