Tennis' darkest moments: When Monica Seles was stabbed on court

Monica Seles in her heyday

April 30th, 1993 – the day produced some of the most horrific scenes on a tennis court that one could ever imagine!

Monica Seles, then in her prime, was playing Magdalena Maleeva in the Quarter Finals of the Hamburg Open. During a break between games, a man called Gunter Parche, an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf, ran from the middle of the crowd and stabbed Seles on her back between the shoulder blades.

While Seles felt a sharp pain shoot up in her back, it took her a while to realize what had actually happened to her. The spectators pounced on the perpetrator and within minutes the security guards whisked him off the court. While the tournament officials and doctors attended to Seles, Maleeva sobbed in disbelief!

It was later found that the man who stabbed Seles had ‘psychological issues’. The man told the court that he felt remorse and did not have intentions of killing Seles. He only wanted to hurt her so that she would not play for the next two weeks. Hence the court, citing his mental imbalance and remorse did not put him behind bars and just gave him a two year suspension.

On this very fateful day, Seles’s golden career came to an abrupt, grinding halt.

Her quintessential grunt, taking the ball on the rise and never say die attitude had propelled her to the top of the rankings. Her trademark double fisted ground strokes off both flanks were penetrating and accurate. At a tender age of 16 years,Seles defeated then World No.1 Steffi Graf to win her first Grand Slam at the French Open.

From then on, she never looked back as she won eight Grand Slam titles in a short span of three years before this gruesome incident. She holds the record for the most number of Grand Slams won as a teenager.

With her ascendancy in women’s tennis in 1990, Seles toppled Graf on more occasions than onc and stamped her authority. The only Grand Slam that Seles never managed to win was Wimbledon. She reached the Wimbledon finals in 1992, but lost to Graf in straight sets. That match will be etched in the memory of all tennis fans because it saw Seles play with ‘muffled grunts’. A lot of players and spectators had complained about her grunts being noisy, distracting and annoying.

Life after the stabbing incident

Seles did not return to the circuit for almost two years since that incident. She plunged into depression as she would constantly be in fear and rarely left her home. What added to her woes was the pain and angst she experienced due to her perpetrator not being jailed.

Her absence from the sport for a good two years gave a fresh lease of life to Graf’s career as the German went on to dominate women’s tennis for the next six years. Graf won 22 Grand Slams and still holds record for the most Grand Slam titles won by a female player in the Open Era.

Seles made a comeback in 1995 and lost to Graf in the finals of the US Open. She won her 9th and final Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 1996 where she defeated Germany’s Anke Huber.

In 2003, she sustained a foot injury and after that she could not return to the circuit. Eventually in 2009, Monica Seles announced her retirement.

Seles added to her spoils an Olympic Medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and also helped the US win at the Fed Cup for three years. Had she not been subjected to that nightmare, she would have probably won many more Grand Slams and become the Greatest of all time!

It is a pity that for a player of her caliber her career was reduced to being discussed with ifs and buts..