There was a tribute to Monica on Monday night at the Rogers Cup in
Toronto, with 15th August being the tenth anniversary of her first
match back on the WTA Tour after the Stabbing.

Preview of the tribute:
http://www.rogerscup.com/english/news/05selessalute.asp

Photos from the tribute:
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=seles
http://editorial.gettyimages.com/MS_GINS/source/home/home.aspx?pg=1
(search for "seles")

Photos from the Players' Party:
http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.php?t=185587


Monica gave the following interview on Monday:
>>>
STACEY ALLASTER: Thank you, everyone. It's a very special night to
welcome our four-time Canadian champion Monica Seles back to
Toronto. Thank you for coming.

MONICA SELES: My pleasure.

STACEY ALLASTER: When you think of champions quite often we think of
their on-court results. But someone like Monica Seles is a true
champion of the sport because obviously she has reached incredible
accomplishments on the court. But everything she does off the court
I think really makes her one of the finest champions our sport has.
Someone like Monica is rare. We thought about, How could we open the
Rexall Centre for the women's tour? It was pretty simple. We wanted
to have our favorite champion come back and take that first
championship walk. So tonight Monica, we'll welcome her back. The
fans have got a little surprise for you.

MONICA SELES: Oh, boy.

STACEY ALLASTER: She will take the first championship walk of a
woman player to officially open it up on behalf of the Sony Ericsson
WTA players. I think it will be special to have you.

MONICA SELES: Thank you. I wish I was playing the first match
tonight, but I'll take the first championship walk. I'll take
anything at this stage [laughter]. Thank you very much for having
me. I can't believe it's been 10 years ago that I was here to make
my comeback I guess from the stabbing. So it's been very special.
Brings back a lot of memories, a lot.

STACEY ALLASTER: For those of you who don't know, Monica was with us
on Thursday. She flew in with Chris and did a fantastic kickoff
event with American Express for their ACES Program. Every time a
player is serving an ace on the grandstand and stadium court, the
American Express ACES Program will donate $150 to Canadian Junior
Tennis. You've worked with American Express at some other events.

MONICA SELES: Yes, definitely. What I like about it, they're really
helping to promote tennis and giving it back to the kids, which is
one area now at the very late stage of my career is trying to give
back to the sport because it has given me so much, and my passion is
kids. So that's kind of the area where the fit came in. The same
thing with Tennis Canada. I think what you guys are doing is very
important because, you know, you need to step up, you need to see
more players from Canada, not just now, the eastern European
countries, what's happening. I think the US is going through the
same shift change. It's just important to have the financial
support, the right coaches and the whole right support system behind
the kids.

STACEY ALLASTER: To help us do that, last night she was our cohost,
my cohost, at the Aces Are Wild player party, which was an
overwhelming success. With Monica's help, with all the players of
the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, we raised $100,000. That's just
phenomenal.

MONICA SELES: For one night, that's pretty good.

STACEY ALLASTER: For one night, that's just great. I'll open it up
to all of you for a few questions.

Q. What do you remember of 1995?

MONICA SELES: Last night when I was watching the tribute on the
teleprompter, it was just like bringing all the memories back.
Really, it's the first time I had a time to kind of, you know, at
this stage in my life to kind of remember. Before you just keep
going, going, so you never have a chance to think about what you've
done. I don't know if I would have -- my hat goes off to myself, how
well I played under those circumstances [laughter]. There's nothing
I could compare to that time, the day when I walked on to play
against Kimberly, my first match, and to actually win the tournament
was very special.

Q. Do you sometimes pick up a racquet now?

MONICA SELES: Yeah, I still play three, four times a week. I still
go down, hit with the kids at different academies near where I live.
I still try. It's just the level I'm playing is not the level that I
would feel comfortable coming back. This is one promise I've made
myself. If I'm not playing a certain level, for the sake of coming
back, I'm not doing that. Last summer I proved that to me. So we'll
see. Time is running out. I think I'm at that stage, I'm okay with
either way that it's going to go.

Q. Why have you not officially retired? What are you waiting for?

MONICA SELES: I don't believe in official retirement. Once you
retire, you really want to be retired. I don't think I'm at that
stage yet. When I really feel I'm definitely retired, then it's
retiring. But I don't feel I'm that stage yet.

Q. What would it take for you to come back and play on the tour
right now with the women here?

MONICA SELES: I think for my body to stay a little bit continuously
healthy, although you see a lot of young players now are battling
tons of injuries. So it's not just, you know, when you get to 31
that it comes. But I think it's just really the level that you want
to play. When I left, I was a top 10 player. I never really have
been out of kind of that area and I would like to make sure that I
can play at that level. And I think you have to be very realistic
about that.

Q. Are there injuries that are holding you up?

MONICA SELES: Well, I had a stress fracture, and I had a bone
fracture. My bone split, my sesamoid bones, I had surgery with that.
That's one of the main reasons I had to stop playing originally.

Q. It's still bothering you?

MONICA SELES: It's one of those that comes and goes. You have good
days, you have good weeks. Then you have weeks for two weeks that
you can't really do much.

Q. When you have two good weeks and you start playing a fair bit, do
you feel you play pretty well?

MONICA SELES: Yeah, then you play really well. For me it helps when
I go to one of the these academies and play with these young kids. I
think to me that's good judgement of where your game is. Then you
get going. What my mistake has been in the past is you get very
excited, and then you up your training program. I was always a
player if I didn't train the right amount of hours, I didn't feel
comfortable going, even though many times my coach has said, You're
at that stage you really need to worry more about your fitness, not
so much how you play, because even if you closed your eyes you could
still play tennis. But I never felt that. I need to put in the
hours. Maybe that has been my downfall, maybe putting in too many
hours. I don't know. But definitely when I have the two good weeks,
I get really excited. Then when you have the bad weeks, or you go in
a cast, then you're like the other end. So it's a very up-and-down
feeling. But I've got into dealing with it much better in the last
year.

Q. Why did you choose Toronto 10 years ago to come back after being
off for so long?

MONICA SELES: Just I think it worked with the schedule, the way your
schedule is being made. I really decided less than a month before
Toronto to decide to come back to play tennis. I didn't really have
much of a choice. Then I played an exhibition in Atlantic City.
After that, I felt, gee, I'm playing pretty good. Toronto was one of
the tournaments that in the past, really before 1995, I'd never done
well. I've never won Toronto. I figured it was a good way to come
in. You have no pressure, you never really played well this
tournament. That was really kind of the idea behind it. I changed my
luck.

Q. You don't go that often to tournaments on the women's tour.

MONICA SELES: No, I've been down to Miami and I was at Wimbledon.
Those were the only two other ones, yeah.

Q. And when you are on-site, do you miss playing?

MONICA SELES: I don't miss like -- I miss the playing part. I don't
miss the traveling part. That part I definitely don't miss. I don't
miss the waiting around for your match. That nervousness, I
definitely don't miss. I miss the playing part. I miss the feeling
you get when you walk on the court and when you come off the court.
I definitely miss that. But certain things you miss, certain things
you don't miss, I guess, yeah.

Q. What about the players? Are there people who come up to you and
say they miss you?

MONICA SELES: Well, players never say that, I mean [laughter]. That
would be asking a lot. I certainly didn't miss the players when
someone retired. That's selfishly. But I keep in touch with quite a
few players, obviously quite a few near Sarasota, Bradenton area
where I live. I have a couple of friends, so I keep in touch with
them. I "mentor" a couple of the young ones coming up.

Q. Who do you mentor?

MONICA SELES: It's a couple of the girls from Yugoslavia.

Q. When you were a teenager in those years, one of the things you
talked about was outside interests. You were talking about becoming
an actress. I remember I saw you in a supporting role in The Nanny.

MONICA SELES: Yes, terrible.

Q. I thought you were good.

MONICA SELES: Thank you.

Q. I'm not a TV critic. Have you thought of doing that, especially
when you see what Serena and Venus Williams do? Have you thought at
this point in your life maybe you'll be a tennis commentator or
consider acting as you once did?

MONICA SELES: I think in terms of what I like to do in terms of a
job or schedule, I think really getting into architecture, is one
area that I like to see. So we'll see. In terms of tennis, I think
once I do decide to fully stop, it's more doing stuff with kids
because I really believe tennis is going through a touch bit of a
stagnation, especially in the States, not so much in Europe, and
kids are not participating really in general in sports at all. I
mean, I have a lot of God-kids, goddaughters, all this stuff. Most
of them, computer, video games. I just think it's important to get
out and get moving. It doesn't have to be in a professional level. I
think a lot of times people misunderstand you have to play tennis
only if you want to be a top player. But I don't agree upon that.
And the way I started playing tennis was very simple, so it really
doesn't take a lot. But either way, whatever sport it is, at least
you go out and get out moving. That's kind of one of my things
that's close to my heart. I guess those two would be.

Q. Who do you mentor?

MONICA SELES: One is Jelena Jankovic. The other one is an upcoming
girl. No need to get the agents involved.

Q. Maybe we could take her ourselves.

MONICA SELES: Let the girl breathe. Later on in her life.

Q. Do you have any explanation for your foot problems?

MONICA SELES: I truly believe it's when you're a child, I had all
these problems with different bones. That's been kind of like my
issue. I think it's just playing too much on the hard courts when
you're growing up. Like all the doctors said, your bone just kind of
never becomes solid. A classic example was when I was stabbed at 19,
I was like 5'7". Two years and a half from not playing, I grew two
and a half inches. Usually most women don't grow at 19. But I think
the tour is anyway looking at the whole issue of injuries. I think
you see that now starting younger. I think my generation, at least
with me it started at 27, my whole injury problem. I guess maybe
some bodies break down more than others. I don't know. So it's one
of those.

Q. Who is your favorite player to watch on tour right now and why?

MONICA SELES: Men's, women's?

Q. Women's.

MONICA SELES: I mean, women's I like, any time you see a top player
play each other, like when you have a Venus, Maria playing, or
Lindsay, Venus. Any time, one of those matches are great because you
know you're going to see great tennis. That's really it. As everyone
else, you like to watch the youngsters because you see the potential
and you see the raw material and you just wonder, you know, where
that potential's going to take them.

Q. Speaking of youngsters, since you raised so much good money for
junior tennis last night, you probably know in Canada, two of our up-
and-coming players are Aleksandra and Sharon Fichman. Sharon is only
14. I wanted to know what you thought of either one of them? Do you
see something in your life when you watch a 14-year-old do very well?

MONICA SELES: Well, I've never seen them play, so it's hard to say.
I think from 14 to 16 in women's tennis is a critical age because, I
mean, women's tennis you have to do very well at an early age. So I
think for them the next two years are going to be important in terms
of their game development, the mental aspect of it, just getting the
right amount of exposure, playing tournaments, training and finding
that balance.

Q. Everybody talks about you and Steffi and Martina and Chrissy. Do
you ever run into Steffi around the tour?

MONICA SELES: I haven't seen Steffi. I saw Andre last time when I
was out there to watch my friend Tommy in the men's LA tournament.
That was the last time. But I didn't see Steffi, no. Martina I run
into all the time. My neighbour. Chrissy I ran into quite a few
times. Not as often as Martina. Who else is there? I don't know.
Gaby, I guess.

Q. Maria Sharapova, what impresses you most about her game?

MONICA SELES: I got to see Maria grow up a little bit at
Bollettieri's when I would go hit there from all the coaches that
work with me, that have worked with her there. She just always
impressed me. Her work ethic was always pretty amazing. Very mature.
I think she surprised everyone how fast she has got into this point.
But I played her a year before she won Wimbledon. I remember calling
my agent saying, "Wow, this girl has improved so much in one year
and she has grown and physically become stronger." I think very well-
deserved. Yeah, she's going to win many, many more Grand Slams. But,
again, it's just key for her, for all the top players now to stay
healthy. That seems to be what keeps holding her back. That's what's
been hurting most of the tournaments this summer, is just injuries.
<<<
<Source: http://www.asapsports.com/tennis/2005canada/081505MS.html>

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/

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