4/30/1993 - Seles stabbed in the back
by ZombieMonta on Apr 30, 2010 12:12 PM EDT
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Monica Seles was the biggest star in women's tennis. At 19, she had already become the top-ranked player in the world, and dominated the likes of Martina Navratilova, Jennifer Capriati, and Steffi Graf. Seles gained worldwide attention by grunting every time she hit the ball. While it was frowned upon in tennis circles, her popularity grew, and grunting became ubiquitous for female tennis players.
In April 1993, Seles was leading Magdalena Maleeva 6-4, 4-3 in a quarterfinal match in Hamburg, Germany. She was using the change-over period to rest when a 38 year-old lathe operator named Gunter Parche shifted out from the crowd. The man brandished a nine-inch boning knife and lodged it between Seles' shoulder blades. Monica yelped in pain and stumbled onto the court as nearby spectators wrestled the assailant to the ground.
Seles was carted out of the stadium and taken to the local hospital. The blade had gone half an inch into her back and was just centimeters away from potentially paralyzing her. It was a couple months before she was physically able to get back on the court, but it would be several years before she actually did so.
"I could not bear it that Monica Seles had driven Stefanie Graf from the No. 1 spot in the rankings," Parche said at the time. "No one should ever beat my Steffi." He testified that he was not trying to kill her, but that he wanted to incapacitate her so that Graf could return to being the best in the world.
"He got his wish: I didn't do anything wrong except be the No. 1, and now I'm being punished for it," Seles said in 1993. "I've lost the ranking, I'm missing the Grand Slams -- which kills me inside -- and for me, 1993 is over, gone. It's a lost year."
Six months later, Gunter's sentence was laid out in a Hamburg courtroom. In a shocking decision, Judge Elke Bosse awarded him a two-year suspended sentence, leaving him a free man with a mere two years of probation. Seles and the rest of the tennis world were stunned. Even Parche had assumed he'd get fifteen years in jail. Bosse was sympathetic of his mental status and his intention to "only" maim her. She found his promise to never harm anyone again "absolutely believeable" and noted that the stabbing was "something that happens every day in St. Pauli."
Monica Seles was traumatized by the attack. She underwent psychiatric therapy and completely disappeared from the game. For two years, women's tennis was without its marquee attraction. After years of depression and seclusion, Monica finally returned to the circuit in 1995. In an unprecedented move, Seles was co-ranked No. 1 with Graf at the announcement of her return.
Seles enjoyed a short stint of success when she came back. Her first tournament was an impressive win in the Canadian Open, where she dominated Amanda Coetzer 6-1, 6-0 in the finals. In 1996, she won the Australian Open and stood alone at the top-ranked position. However she never regained the prominence she enjoyed prior to the stabbing. Seles would face Graf twice in the U.S. Open and lost in three sets both times.
In February 2008, after further years of inactivity due to injuries, Seles officially retired from competitive tennis. Though she still amassed a Hall of Fame career, who knows where she could have gone had her best years not been taken from her.
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Tragic story.
You can really only imagine what could have been.
"All by their heads, he places crowns."
"God I'm excited for those two to fail miserably." - SBNation writer Andrew Sharp on Josh McDaniels and Tim Tebow.
Quitter's People United Member #18
by Tempestuous Binary on Apr 30, 2010 1:29 PM EDT reply actions
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