Monica Seles interview: Turning tragedy into triumph

09:28 12/03/2014
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  • Fighting back: Seles' return from her tragic stabbing in 1993 is still remarkable.

    Nine grand slam titles, victory in 53 singles and six doubles tournaments, number one in the world for 178 weeks. Those achievements make Monica Seles a tennis legend. But, it should have been so much more.

    The 40-year-old’s career was interrupted on April 30, 1993 when a deranged fan stabbed her in the back with a nine-inch blade during a match in Hamburg, Germany. The surprise attack occurred when she was at the peak of her powers, fighting for the sport’s elite titles with Steffi Graf – and usually beating the German great to them.

    You could excuse her for feeling bitter about the event which sidelined her for more than two years. While speaking to Sport360° in Abu Dhabi for Inspire Sports Management’s Inspirational Women 2014 event, however, the United States-based icon seemed to have made her peace with the incident. 

    “I do not believe in living my life with regret,” she said. “I was lucky that with a fuzzy yellow ball and a racquet I was able to travel the world and make a living.

    “Most of us, after a certain stage of our lives, know there are highs and lows. You just have to deal with them.

    “I am very happy that after my stabbing I decided to come back and play. The love for the game won over everything else.

    “Every day, you try to be a better person and a stronger person. To this day, that is the motto I live by.”

    Seles burst onto the scene as a prodigious frizzy-haired teenager, who went from practicing with her father in the car park of the family’s apartment complex in her native Yugoslavia to becoming the youngest-ever French Open singles winner at 16.

    Her remarkable journey included seven other major victories during a golden spell between 1991 and 1993, in which she and Graf battled for glory.

    The emotional trauma then caused by the attack in Hamburg, and subsequent fitness issues, would have caused lesser athletes to crumble.

    Instead, Seles mounted one of sport’s most endearing comebacks when she recovered from the verge of defeat in the semi-final to lift her fourth Australian Open title in 1996 with a dominant 6-4, 6-1 victory against Anke Huber.

    When asked to pick between the triumphs that bookended her career at the highest level, Seles is unable to offer a definite answer.

    “For me it is impossible to pick between the two, as they are important for different reasons in my heart,” she said. “I dreamed of winning the French Open as a 16-year-old. Going into the tournament [at that age] you do not think you are going to win it, you think you come back and will win it at 18. You go from being an unknown to someone who has arrived.

    “[After the stabbing] I missed tennis at the peak of my time, and I hardly played for two-and- a-half years. To know I could still play at a high level [after winning the Australian Open] will stay very special to me.”

    Since retiring in February 2008, Seles has dedicated much of her energies to promoting health and fitness. She speaks from experience, with her autobiographical self-help book ‘Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self’ revealing with searing honesty the binge-eating episodes that saw her weight balloon until she began conquering the problem a decade ago.

    Now tanned, lithe and with sun-kissed hair thanks to the glorious weather in her adopted Florida, Seles radiates well-being in person. It was this message that saw her invited to Abu Dhabi for a five-day trip last week by ISM, Mubadala, Al Dar Academies and SMK Tennis, in which she put on several training sessions, including one for more than 1,000 children.

    “I have been to Abu Dhabi a few times, but this was the first time I really got to interact with the Emirati ladies,” she said. “That made it extra special.”

    Seles has not always been in such fine fettle, and was questioned about her conditioning at various stages of her career.

    This is a topic which British player Laura Robson knows all about. Speaking to ESPN in January, 18-time grand slam winner Chris Evert urged the 20-year-old Robson to work on her fitness “a little bit more” and become more disciplined if she is ever to realise her potential.

    When asked whether she feels frustrated when watching Robson, Seles said: “For sure. But I went through a phase where my coaches told me about my fitness problems.

    “Hopefully, as she matures and spends longer on the tour, she will realise how much her game would improve if she could stay fitter and focus on that. Her strokes are there, but it has to come from the player.

    “In my career, a lot of people wrote about that and told me about it, but until I internalised [that message] in my mind, in a positive way, the outcome was not successful.

    “For me, that came once Serena and Venus Williams came on the tour [in the late 1990s] as they took fitness to a whole new level.”

    Seles speaks fondly of her experiences in the Middle East, and expressed hope that a grand slam would soon be played in the region.

    “I think in my lifetime we will see one played, for sure,” she said. “Hopefully we will also have a ladies event or a special invitational tournament played in Abu Dhabi too.”

    Seles revealed that she turned down the chance to enter the draft for the newlyinaugurated International Premier Tennis League, in which Dubai have a team.

    She said: “I was offered a chance to play. But unfortunately I really do not play enough tennis [now] to be comfortable playing.

    “If it had happened 10 years ago, for sure, I would have loved to play. It is a great idea to bring the sport of tennis to new parts [of the world] and introduce it to young children.”

    The multi-talented Seles has even found time to launch ‘The Academy’ series of fictional stories, which she claims are not based on her experiences on the tennis tour.

    Quite right, too.

    You simply cannot conjure a life story like hers.

    Seles on…

    … the lack of rivalry in women’s tennis:
    “It is so hard to say. When you have it we are not happy, and when we do not, it is the same. I think now Serena Williams has that bit of extra consistency. But in a way, it makes it exciting. Tennis is in a fantastic place, and we as fans have got to enjoy it.”

    … Eugenie Bouchard:
    “She has a fantastic head on her shoulders. I played with her in a celebrity doubles event in Toronto last year. She is a very mature young lady and has great skills, which she displayed at the Australian Open.”

    … being in Abu Dhabi:
    “It was an honour when Inspire Sports Management invited me. I did a kids’ clinic with more than 1,000 children, and then got to play tennis with the local Emirati ladies. Coming to the General Women’s Union for International Women’s Day, has been a really beautiful learning experience for me.

    … obesity:
    “At the end of the day the mind and body connection is really important. Education is always number one. But a healthy body produces a healthy mind. With that combination you have huge advantages.”

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