Tennis is a game of control, a game that is just as mental as physical. If a
player's head is not on the court, his/her body won't be either.

In her new book, Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind and My Self, Monica Seles
explains how she finally learned to let go of that control and take her life
back.

Seles, 35, recounts her life, starting as a young child growing up in Novi Sad,
Yugoslavia when she first picked up a tennis racket at the age of six, and
moving on to when Seles left for Florida to attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis
Academy.

Her talent on the court took her around the world: first on the juniour
tournament, then with the WTA. At the height of her career, Seles was the world
No. 1, but all that changed in 1993, when she was infamously stabbed in the back
by a crazed Steffi Graf fan while playing a match against Magdalena Maleeva in
Hamburg.

As she was getting treatment for the wounds, the WTA voted to revoke her No. 1
ranking (they made her and Graf shared possession of No. 1 when she returned to
the tour). And it was at this time, Seles's father learned he had prostate
cancer.

Seles documents her struggle to get back in to form in order to get back on the
court. Food quickly became a refuge for Seles's grief and frustration over her
stabbing, her father's illness and his eventual death. She tried to reclaim her
No. 1 ranking, but the weight she continued to put on prevented her from getting
back to where her career had ended that day in Germany. She tries crash diets,
fitness trainers, self-help books all to no avail.

Finally, Seles finds ways to deal with the eating problem and the pain. She
never reclaimed that No.1 ranking before retiring, but she doesn't seem bothered
by it.

One of the disappointments of the book was Seles's account of the stabbing.
Described in a short four-page chapter, it almost feels as if it was not the
life-changing event that Seles claims it was.

Though, to be fair, her account of the stabbing is just that. Her first memory
of the event is the sudden, sharp pain in her back. She can't remember seeing
the man run up behind her or his demenour before raising the knife. So, perhaps
that honesty excuses the curious lack of detail that surrounds that particular
event.

Seles's book is an easy read. She has a way of connecting with her audience,
especially women who too often define themselves by what they do instead of who
they are. She doesn't provide any quick-fix weight loss tips, which makes the
book even more satisfying. Her discoveries are far more refreshing than any
crash diet advice.