rogerfederer26
Rookie
Saluting Seles
Fan favorite rides off into the sunset
Posted: Wednesday February 20, 2008 11:55AM; Updated: Wednesday February 20, 2008 4:19PM
CNNSI Jon Wertheim
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cach...cnnsi+saluting+seles&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Monica Seles was never the same player after the infamous stabbing incident in 1993, but she became a sentimental fan favorite.Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT
Let's start with an ode to Monica Seles, who was the subject of much mail. Seles, of course, officially retired on Valentine's Day. From tennis that is.
She'll be performing alongside Adam Corolla and Priscilla Presley et al on the next Dancing with the Stars. (We suspend cynicism and assume there's no correlation between the two announcements.) I figure it might just be easiest to cut-and-paste a brief "career obit" I wrote in this week's Sports Illustrated:
Consider this: While there are currently no teenagers inhabiting the WTA Tour's top 10, before she turned 20, Seles -- a grunting lefty from the former Yugoslavia with a terminal case of the giggles -- had won nine Grand Slam titles and been ranked No. 1 for more than 100 weeks. It wasn't just that she was winning relentlessly but how.
Clubbing the ball with her two-fisted strokes, hitting so early she often short-hopped her shots, Seles almost seemed to be playing an altogether different sport from rest of the field, including the great Steffi Graf. Had Seles sustained her trajectory into, say, her mid-20s, she would have been recalled as the best female player ever to have gripped a racket.
We know, of course, what came next. During a tournament a Hamburg in the spring of 1993, Seles was stabbed in the back by a deranged Graf fan. Sadly, that act did more to change tennis history than any rule change or racket innovation.
The wound on Seles' right shoulder blade would eventually heal; her emotional recovery would take much longer. After more than two years away, she returned -- her giggles, pointedly, gone -- but would win only one more Grand Slam title. Graf, meanwhile, would win 11 more.
In the winter of 2000, I sat with Seles outside a gym in Oklahoma City, where she was playing a small WTA event. The "power era" she single-handedly (double-handedly?) inaugurated was now her nemesis, as heavy hitters such as the Williams sisters, were blowing her off the court. Injuries were conspiring against her as well. Seven years after Hamburg, the subject of her stabbing was still taboo.
"I'm about the present," she said, before finally conceding that she was ready for The Fates to author her a happy ending.
Yet, transformed from champion to tragedienne, Seles became far more popular than she was while winning all those titles. It became impossible to root against her. At first, out of sympathy. Then, because she revealed herself to be so thoroughly thoughtful, graceful, dignified. When she quietly announced her retirement last week at age 34, she exited as perhaps the most adored figure in the sport's history. As happy endings go, one could do worse.
Fan favorite rides off into the sunset
Posted: Wednesday February 20, 2008 11:55AM; Updated: Wednesday February 20, 2008 4:19PM
CNNSI Jon Wertheim
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cach...cnnsi+saluting+seles&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Monica Seles was never the same player after the infamous stabbing incident in 1993, but she became a sentimental fan favorite.Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT
Let's start with an ode to Monica Seles, who was the subject of much mail. Seles, of course, officially retired on Valentine's Day. From tennis that is.
She'll be performing alongside Adam Corolla and Priscilla Presley et al on the next Dancing with the Stars. (We suspend cynicism and assume there's no correlation between the two announcements.) I figure it might just be easiest to cut-and-paste a brief "career obit" I wrote in this week's Sports Illustrated:
Consider this: While there are currently no teenagers inhabiting the WTA Tour's top 10, before she turned 20, Seles -- a grunting lefty from the former Yugoslavia with a terminal case of the giggles -- had won nine Grand Slam titles and been ranked No. 1 for more than 100 weeks. It wasn't just that she was winning relentlessly but how.
Clubbing the ball with her two-fisted strokes, hitting so early she often short-hopped her shots, Seles almost seemed to be playing an altogether different sport from rest of the field, including the great Steffi Graf. Had Seles sustained her trajectory into, say, her mid-20s, she would have been recalled as the best female player ever to have gripped a racket.
We know, of course, what came next. During a tournament a Hamburg in the spring of 1993, Seles was stabbed in the back by a deranged Graf fan. Sadly, that act did more to change tennis history than any rule change or racket innovation.
The wound on Seles' right shoulder blade would eventually heal; her emotional recovery would take much longer. After more than two years away, she returned -- her giggles, pointedly, gone -- but would win only one more Grand Slam title. Graf, meanwhile, would win 11 more.
In the winter of 2000, I sat with Seles outside a gym in Oklahoma City, where she was playing a small WTA event. The "power era" she single-handedly (double-handedly?) inaugurated was now her nemesis, as heavy hitters such as the Williams sisters, were blowing her off the court. Injuries were conspiring against her as well. Seven years after Hamburg, the subject of her stabbing was still taboo.
"I'm about the present," she said, before finally conceding that she was ready for The Fates to author her a happy ending.
Yet, transformed from champion to tragedienne, Seles became far more popular than she was while winning all those titles. It became impossible to root against her. At first, out of sympathy. Then, because she revealed herself to be so thoroughly thoughtful, graceful, dignified. When she quietly announced her retirement last week at age 34, she exited as perhaps the most adored figure in the sport's history. As happy endings go, one could do worse.
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