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.