A stabbing 30 years ago turned the rising star’s life around.
Monica Seles won her first Roland Garros tennis tournament when she was only 16 years old. PDO
On this year’s May Day eve, we remember a shocking event 30 years ago. In Germany on April 30, 1993, a tennis player Monica Selesia was stabbed in the middle of a match when he was playing a Russian Magdalena Maleevaa against.
Seles, who represented Yugoslavia, was a sensational name in the tennis world at the time. As a teenager, he had already taken the world number one spot from another legend, the German From Steffi Grafwhom he had previously beaten in the final of the Australian Open.
Between 1990 and 1993, Seles won the Grand Slam tournament once in Australia, twice in the United States and three times in France.
Seles did not suffer permanent injuries from the attack, but suffered from fear states for a long time. PDO
Seles was only 19 years old at the time of the stabbing. He was believed to compete for years with Graf, who is four years his senior, for the title of best player, just like on the men’s side Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have competed in the 21st century.
It was the other way around. In the quarter-final match played in Hamburg, the German Günter Parche rushed from the stands behind Seles, who was on break, and stabbed him in the back. Parche revealed himself to be a passionate Graf fan and admitted in court that he wanted Seles off the field for a while.
Parche received a two-year suspended sentence for his act. He died in 2022.
The two-centimeter-deep stab wound was not fatal, but Parche’s wish came true. Seles did not play for more than two years and after the break was never the same player as before the attack.
However, he played tennis from 1995 to 2008, but never reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament again. A year after quitting, he was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame.
Seles, who lives in Florida, is often an invited guest at tennis tournaments. Rob Prange/Shutterstock
Tennis fans never found out if Seles had what it took to become the greatest player of all time. His name has appeared in lists of the best players from time to time.
Seles’ rival Steffi Graf was the most dominant player of her time. He held the world number one spot for 377 weeks.
After the stabbing, Graf and Seles met five more times in tennis tournaments. Seles beat the German only once.
Billionaire man
In 2008, Seles was spotted dating an American billionaire Tom Golisano with. The 81-year-old businessman owned, among other things, the NHL club Buffalo Sabres, which he gave up in 2011.
Seles got engaged to a much older man in 2014 and later married. Golisano ran for governor of New York state three times. He and his wife moved to a more tax-friendly state, Florida.
Golisano’s net worth is believed to hover around $5.2 billion.
Seles tells Instagram– on his account that he is a motivational lecturer and author.