Saturday, February 16, 2008

Seles Retires

Monica Seles officially retired.



Born in what is now Serbia, Monica was in the process of becoming a naturalized American citizen when she won the No. 1 world ranking from Steffi Graf of Germany and dominated the women's game.

In her first four years on the circuit (1989-1992), Monica had a win-loss record of 231-25 (90%), winning 30 titles. In the open era, only Chris Evert had a better first four years, with a winning percentage of 91% and 34 titles.

Monica won her first Grand Slam title at the age of 16 in 1990 at the French Open.

Between January 1991 and February 1993, Seles won 22 titles and reached the finals on 33 of the 34 tournaments she played. She compiled a 159-12 win-loss record (93%) and a 55-1 win-loss record in Grand Slam tournaments.

By the end of January 1993, Monica had won three consecutive French Open titles, two consectutive US Open titles, and two consecutive Australian Open titles, having defeated Steffi Graf three out of four times in Grand Slam finals. (Graf had the edge only on grass.)

In Hamburg Germany, the cliche has it that "a crazed Steffi Graf fan" (euphemism for "anti-American nationalist" - you know, like these "cycling fans") ran all the way from the middle of the crowd brandishing a kitchen knife and stabbed Monica in the back. She was 19 years old.

The deep psychological twist of the knife was that he didn't even get punished for it. He was judged psychologically "abnormal," and that was judged an excuse to suspend his sentence to two years probation. Which makes no sense: he was either insane and thus deserving of NO sentence, or sane and deserving of punishment. Honesty can't have it both ways! He spent not one day in jail. Not one.

He just couldn't help it, you see.

That would get to me too. It's just nothing for someone to do that to you = there is no penalty for it, eh? What a dehumanizing value judgment.

Tennis wouldn't seem so important anymore to me either, not when people are getting that whipped up by nationalistic sentiment and propaganda - to the point that they all just make nothing of someone trying to kill you. She refused to play in Germany thereafter.

Though Seles was fortunate and quickly recoverd from the physical wound, she didn't return to tennis for two years. She was deeply wounded by being hated so just because of her excellence and where she came from, and because an attempt to kill her was made nothing of, and because the WTA didn't come through for her the way any other player union would have come through for one of its members. You know - money.

Seles never was the same. Thus her would-be assassin, 38-year-old Gunter Parche, had succeeded in eliminating Graf's competition.

I think this is largely because the psychological wound targeted the heart of Seles' game - her tremendous competetiveness and tremendous fortitude as perhaps the best big-point player ever. She hits two-fisted off both sides and was the first power player in the women's game.

So, we'll never know how many more Grand Slam titles Seles would have won and how many fewer ones Graf would have won.

Nonetheless, when Seles did return to the game, the epiphany she had experienced may have actually improved her perspective. She never recovered the same all-consuming drive to win but seems to have enjoyed life more.

A foot injury sidelined her in 2003, and though she spoke of coming back at least twice, in 2005 and again in 2007, she has played exhibition matches only since then. On February 14, she announced her official retirement from professional tennis.

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