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RIVER OAKS INTERNATIONAL TENNIS TOURNAMENT
(Houston, Texas, USA; clay; exhibition)
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http://www.riveroaksinternational.com/

+ Monica Seles [EF] d. Martina Navrátilová, 7-6 (7/1) 2-6 [10/1].

(The Houston Chronicle misprinted the score as 6-7 6-2 [10/1]
according to Ronny & James <http://www.monicaselessite.com/> who were
actually there.)

A lot of people have been talking about Monica as though she's done.
They say that even if she does come back, she'll be losing to
nonentities. I don't know anyone who's won nine Grand Slams and had
so many doubters in their lives.

But if there's been one recurring theme in women's tennis in the last
12 years, it's that class is permanent, and great champions can still
come back and be a threat to everybody (e.g. Monica herself in 1995,
Jennifer Capriati in 2001, Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters in 2005,
and Serena Williams in 2007).

Monica's not going to come back and lose to nonentities. She's going
to come back and dominate. It might only be for five tournaments (as
per the Houston Chronicle article), but even that would be enough to
match Pete Sampras's tally of 14 Grand Slam titles. And I do think
Monica might consider playing only the Grand Slams, if she thinks
that her left foot won't stand for a full WTA Tour schedule (excuse
the pun).

She seems to be prioritising the Slams she's already won (the French,
US and Australian Opens), but I crave her first Wimbledon-title like
oxygen. It's been an awful long wait for something that once seemed
so certain, but I would die a happy man if she could finally complete
a Career Grand Slam, and silence all the haters who say that you
can't be considered an all-time great unless you've won Wimbledon.

But Monica will always be the greatest tennis-player of all time,
regardless of whether she wins Wimbledon, because of the following
three facts combined:

1. She had already won 8 Grand Slams by the age of 19y 2m (Australian
Open 1993), and was winning them at a rate of 3 a year.

2. On 30th April 1993, she was stabbed in the back at a changeover by
a man who couldn't bear the thought of Monica usurping Steffi Graf
(who, at the time of the Stabbing, had won 11 Grand Slams by the age
of 23, and was ranked #2 behind Monica).

3. Monica came back in mid-1995, winning her first WTA tournament (a
Tier I) for the loss of 14 games in 5 matches, coming within an
overruled ace of winning the US Open 1995, and actually winning the
Australian Open 1996 for her 9th Grand Slam.

Sure, Monica may not have won a Grand Slam since the Australian Open
1996, owing to a series of injuries, the death of her father after a
5-year battle with cancer, and of course much stronger competition as
the new generation of power-players that she herself had inspired
with her hard, flat, early groundstrokes emerged. But nothing can
ever tarnish her legacy.

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Photos
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Monica playing her exhibition (and the Houston Chronicle article):
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4692747.html

Off-court at River Oaks:
http://www.monicaselessite.com/home.html

Monica at the Laureus Awards:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2qkktj
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=seles
http://isifa.com/result_ed.php?search_id=1083685
http://www.aapimage.com.au/search.aspx?Search=seles
Search Getty Images for "seles"

Monica gets better with age, like an old bottle of Cherry Coke (I am
a teetotaller, so I mean that as a huge compliment). Having often
been accused of being overweight in 1994-2003, if anything she's gone
the other way - her arms look very thin. But she certainly has
gorgeous collarbones.

When I became a Monica-fan (and tennis-fan) back in 1992, it was all
about the tennis for me. But now I find Monica more attractive than
when she was in her teens and tweens, and more attractive than any
other woman over 30 (a status Iva Majoli attains on 12th August 2007).

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Video
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Monica's return to the WTA Tour at Toronto 1995 - Seles v Po:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32WCzc7QLYA

-------------------
Quotes about Monica
-------------------

Serena Williams mentioned Monica in her fourth-round press-conference
at Miami:

"Well, what happened to Monica was awful, but ever since then the
security has been extremely tight, and every year it gets more tight
and more tight."


Shahar Pe'er mentioned Monica in an interview in the January/February
2007 issue of British tennis-magazine _Ace_:

"I used to like Monica Seles very much. She was always very
aggressive on the court. Some people say I look a bit like Monica. An
Israeli newspaper once put a picture of me next to a picture of
Monica and said we looked the same."

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All-time youngest players to win a WTA Tour singles main-draw match
-------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Mary Joe Fernández - 13y 6m - 1985 Miami
2. Jennifer Capriati - 13y 11m - 1990 Boca Raton
3. Steffi Graf - 13y 11m 10d - 1983 Roland Garros
4. Martina Hingis - 14y 1w - 1994 Zürich
5. Kathy Rinaldi - 14y 3w - 1981 Amelia Island
6. Tracy Austin - 14y 1m - 1977 Portland
7. Michelle Larcher de Brito - 14y 1m 3w - 2007 Miami
8. Stephanie Rehe - 14y 2m - 1984 Hershey
9. Gabriela Sabatini - 14y 2m 2w - 1984 Indianapolis
10. Monica Seles - 14y 3m - 1988 Boca Raton

So Monica was the seventh-youngest at the time that she did it.

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/ (added 1 external link)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/selesians/