Myths and Truths on the Seles-Graf Rivalry

[grandslamchamp]

The way Serena won her Serena slam suggested there was no way her dominance would stop, yet it did.

Not by somebody stabbing her after she had won 10 of the last 12 major singles titles in the sport as a teenager.

There's a difference.

 

[jhhachamp]

Steffi won 11 Slams since the stabbing of Monica Seles.

Take away the ones she had not been able to win with Seles competing before having her career devastated by the knife of one of Graf's fans and you only have 3 since Seles was stabbed. That would leave Steffi with 14.

Monica Seles was never the player after her return that she was before the stabbing ... and anybody who has paid attention to tennis in these last 15 years would know that.

The only Slam that Graf had a good chance of winning with Seles in the form she was in during those years 1991, 1992 and 1993 before the stabbing was Wimbledon .. so, a good argument could be made that Graf at her best and Seles at her best throughout the 1990s would have brought Graf only a total of 14 Slam -- the 9 Slams Graf won before Seles' dominance began + the 5 Wimbledons Graf won after Seles' dominance began.

This was in response to a request to name 10 players that would have had better careers than Graf without the stabbing. What you responded has absolutely no relevance to that. Please stop dodging questions.

 

[jhhachamp]

There was no guarantee that Seles wouldn't ... and the FACT remains that Seles won 10 of the 12 biggest events in women's tennis in those 30 months leading up to the stabbing --- EVERY major event in women's tennis other than Wimbledon between the 1990 WTA Championships and the 1993 Australian Open.

The way Seles beat Steffi Graf to win the 1993 Australian Open for a 3rd consecutive singles title there certainly did not suggest that Seles was close to ending her dominance.

It took a knife in the hands of Guenther Parche to stop Monica's dominance.

Exactly, that is what I am saying, is that there is no guarantee what would have happened had she not been stabbed, so stop trying to act like you know exactly how it would have worked out. Just accept that other people have different opinions and move on. You certainly are not convincing anyone to take your side on this with your tactics of using multiple user names.

 

[wtaplayerz]

The Graf extremist fans rants and raves about what the whole issue of what Seles' career should have been but he/she refuses to acknowledge one ugly flaw in the whole story: Steffi Graf, as the person whose fan stabbed the #1 player in order to give her the ability to claim that rank, should have stepped up in Rome at the players meeting and insisted that Seles' #1 ranking be frozen until she was physically able to play again. The fact that Graf didn't do that and all but one player chose to take advantage of the situation to improve their own rankings and the WTA refused to step in was disgraceful.

 

[Hops]

Steffi Graf, as the person whose fan stabbed the #1 player in order to give her the ability to claim that rank, should have stepped up in Rome at the players meeting and insisted that Seles' #1 ranking be frozen

it was frozen. when Seles finally came back she was given a co-#1 rank.

until she was physically able to play again.

the physical wound itself was not very deep. Worse was the psycological damage. I always thought Seles made a big mistake waiting so long to come back.

 

[wtaplayerz]

it was frozen. when Seles finally came back she was given a co-#1 rank.





the physical wound itself was not very deep. Worse was the psycological damage. I always thought Seles made a big mistake waiting so long to come back.

When Seles was stabbed, it cracked her biggest weapon, her intensity. She was the most focused player I had ever seen. She said in her bio that not only did she live with a lot of anxiety and fear but she also starting wondering how important tennis should be in her life when someone tries to hurt or kill her in order to hinder her career, then other players twist the knife in her back by taking advantage of an extraordinary incident...wrap this all in the fact that her father was dying of stomach cancer and you can understand what happened to Monica during those 27 months.

btw, this isn't sentimentality. It's what really happened.

 

[williams planet]

I agree!!!!

 

[williams planet]

The Graf extremist fans rants and raves about what the whole issue of what Seles' career should have been but he/she refuses to acknowledge one ugly flaw in the whole story: Steffi Graf, as the person whose fan stabbed the #1 player in order to give her the ability to claim that rank, should have stepped up in Rome at the players meeting and insisted that Seles' #1 ranking be frozen until she was physically able to play again. The fact that Graf didn't do that and all but one player chose to take advantage of the situation to improve their own rankings and the WTA refused to step in was disgraceful.

Yep, Seles had been #1 for 86 consecutive weeks when she was stabbed. That's called domination. Graf took over the #1 ranking 5 weeks after the stabbing because: 1) She was unable to defend her 3rd consecutive championship at RG ecause of the stabbing and 2) because Steffi Graf along with all but one other top woman player (Sabatini) in attendance at the Italian Open in Rome voted only 1 week after the stabbing not to freeze Seles' ranking until she was physically able to return.

 

[wtaplayerz]

it was frozen. when Seles finally came back she was given a co-#1 rank.





the physical wound itself was not very deep. Worse was the psycological damage. I always thought Seles made a big mistake waiting so long to come back.

Who ever DID the stabbing knew that. The only way to stop Seles' total dominance of women's tennis at that time was to destroy her biggest weapon : mental strength and focus.

 

[Hops]

Who ever DID the stabbing knew that. The only way to stop Seles' total dominance of women's tennis at that time was to destroy her biggest weapon : mental strength and focus.

You're giving Parche way too much credit. The man was deranged; I doubt his thought process ever got more complicated than ~~ injure Seles ~ Seles out ~ Graf #1 again. He had no way of knowing how Monica would react mentally.

Seles could have come back in six months; instead she stayed away two and a half years. It was her choice, and it no doubt hurt her in a tennis accomplishment sense. Perhaps she turned out a better human being instead. There's more to life than # of slams won.

 

[williams planet]

You're giving Parche way too much credit. The man was deranged; I doubt his thought process ever got more complicated than ~~ injure Seles ~ Seles out ~ Graf #1 again. He had no way of knowing how Monica would react mentally.

Seles could have come back in six months; instead she stayed away two and a half years. It was her choice, and it no doubt hurt her in a tennis accomplishment sense. Perhaps she turned out a better human being instead. There's more to life than # of slams won.

Yepppppppp I gotta I agree with ih_righty sometimes ya ova do it! ya write too much.
But graf being one of ya favs I guess ya have to to try to convince some people!

What it boils down to is that if Monica Seles wouldn't have been stabbed by grafs nutty fan Monica would have the 22 slammers and ya gil would have a ninerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
And that's the truth no matta how ya spin it!! LOL :mrgreen:

 

[williams planet]

You're giving Parche way too much credit. The man was deranged; I doubt his thought process ever got more complicated than ~~ injure Seles ~ Seles out ~ Graf #1 again. He had no way of knowing how Monica would react mentally.

you are probably related to Parche for your idiotic explanation of his actions. :mrgreen:

 

[Noelle]

OK. Somebody has to say it.

You are a troll.

Please don't feed the troll anymore, people. Thanks.

 

[williams planet]

OK. Somebody has to say it.

You are a troll.

Please don't feed the troll anymore, people. Thanks.

And you are the worst third world troll i have ever seen by messing up this thread.

 

[wtaplayerz]

And you are the worst third world troll i have ever seen by messing up this thread.

Thanks. I should have said that a long time ago....LOL

 

[callitout]

To use the tortured logic of this board: the only way to really decide this wouldve been had a Seles fan done the only logical thing and stabbed Graf with a similar knife and seen her response. (of course, Im not advocating this).

I think its extremely unfair to criticize Monica for not dealing with the adversity well or not rushing back. Of course, it takes the joy out of playing and you lose some focus if you have the threat of being killed in the back of your mind. McEnroe and many others couldnt maintain peak performance after time off despite not being assaulted, so why should anyone expect anything different from Monica.

 

[Silky Sampras]

this guy is G@Y

Always such insightful input, Tennis4loser. Where would we be without you?