ilove.juju
New User
A respected tennis historian shoud at least sort his basic facts out. Evert peaked several years before Navratilova. There was only a brief period around 1982 when both were of roughly equal strenght. BY 1982 Evert had won 15 of her 18 major titles, while Navratilova won 15 of her 18 titles FROM 1982.
And Graf won of course only 6 of her 22 titles while Seles was off the tour, two of them at Wimbledon. Given that Graf owned Seles on grass and also led the head-to-head comparison by the time the mad man knifed Seles, it's rather likely that Graf would have won 18 plus slams also without Parche.
The point he makes in his article is valid though. Entering the French open 1990, Graf held 9 grand slams titles to Seles none.
Entering Hamburg in spring 1993, Monica Seles had 8 grand slam titles and Graf 11. So out of the last 12 slam played, Seles took 8 and Graf took 2. That's a huge difference.
The head to head favored Graf because she won the first 3 matches they played, Seles being a 15 year old rookie in 1989. Seles then lead the rivalry 4-3, which is close, but 3 of the 4 wins were GS finals where it matters most.
Though Graf posted a great win against seles in 1992 in Wimbledon, she could not find ways to beat her at the Australian Open 1993 where she never came close to victory.
So in my mind, Seles could have well continued to win at least on slower surfaces (AO, FO), Graf on grass and maybe on the USO hardcourts. It's unlikely that Seles would have gone from winning 4 of the 5 biggest titles 2 years ni a row, starting 1993 with a GS win (and losing only one match) to losing all her titles and big matches had the stabbing not occured.