It was at 07:44 GMT on the cold English morning of 15th February 2008
that I tuned into CEEFAX to see a headline announcing the retirement
of the greatest tennis-player of all time. (She actually announced
her retirement on 14th February - 19 years and one day after turning
pro.)

I have had almost five years to get used to the idea that Monica
Seles might have played her last-ever professional match on 27th May
2003, when, struggling with a long-term stress-fracture in her left
foot, the then-29-year-old lost to Nadia Petrova in the first round
of the French Open.

In those five years, Monica played a handful of exhibition-matches
(which she plans to continue doing in the future), and as long as she
hadn't announced her retirement, I still clung to the hope that she
might make one more comeback. Indeed, at the end of last year, she
announced plans to play the Super Tier I at Miami next month, and I
was really looking forward to that.

So to see the bad news there in cyan, black and white on CEEFAX made
me feel as though my guts had just been ripped out. For those first
few awful seconds, I actually felt like she had died rather than
merely retired.

It was Monica who made a tennis-fan of me back in 1992, and I'm proud
to say that I have always considered her my favourite player - and
until now, my favourite /active/ player.

Maria Sharapova has just inherited the honour of being my favourite
active player, and my Eternal Fanship currently stands as follows:

1. Monica Seles (retired)
2. Maria Sharapova
3. Daniela Hantuchová
4. Jelena Dokic
5. Iva Majoli (retired)
6. Karina Habšudová (retired)
7. Iroda Tulyaganova
8. Vera Zvonarëva
9. Nicole Vaidišová
10. Anna Chakvetadze
11. Lucie Šafárová

I have always loved Monica for her two-handed forehands and
backhands, hit on the rise with phenomenal power - particularly for
the era of women's tennis in which she arrived, when even against
Steffi Graf the girls could get a breather by hitting to her
backhand. Nowadays, many women hit the ball hard, flat and early, but
there are few players who can equal the amazing angles Monica came up
with, or the way she dissected her opponents' games with the ruthless
precision of a chess-computer.

Monica is one of the great pioneers in tennis-history, and having
inspired a wonderful new generation of players, she leaves women's
tennis in a far better state than that in which she found it.

Monica's mental strength and intensity are legendary - it was often
said that she had a mind like a steel trap, which would snap shut as
soon as there was any defeat in her opponent. She had a loud, two-
tone grunt that is music to my ears!

On 30th April 1993, Monica was stabbed in the back at a changeover by
a rabid Graf-fan who could not bear to see his heroine usurped as
world #1 - the ranking Monica had held almost continuously since 11th
March 1991. At the time of the stabbing, Monica's dominance of
women's tennis was Federer-like: she had won seven of the last eight
Grand Slams she played (she had won 8 Grand Slams up to that point:
French Open 1990, 1991, 1992; US Open 1991, 1992; Australian Open
1991, 1992, 1993 (and 1996 after the stabbing)).

There is little doubt that, but for the stabbing, Monica would have
won many more Grand Slam singles-titles, including some Wimbledons.
She might well have overtaken Margaret Court's all-time record of 24.
She would certainly have won more than Graf, who was 4˝ years older
but only 3 Grand Slams ahead of Monica at the time of the stabbing.
Even as it was, Monica retired as the active player with the most (9)
Grand Slam singles-titles, and only as recently as January 2008 was
she overtaken as the active player with the most WTA Tour singles-
titles as Lindsay Davenport won her 54th.

The stabbing left me bitter and twisted for the next five years, as I
struggled to come to terms with the tragic loss of my favourite
player, the insensitive attitude of others to the stabbing and how it
changed the course of tennis-history, all the 'would haves', and the
gross injustice of it all. I finally did begin to come to terms with
it by founding Selesianity.

The Selesian view is that Monica is the greatest tennis-player of all
time /because/ of the stabbing: because of the glorious manner in
which she overcame that vile act of terrorism. In August 1995, she
returned to the WTA Tour and won her first tournament back - the Tier
I at Toronto - for the loss of just 14 games! In her second
tournament back, she came within a bad line-call of winning the first
set against Graf in the US Open final (and almost certainly the
match, since she won the second set 6-0). In her third tournament
back, she won Sydney 1996, and in her fourth tournament back, she won
her ninth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open 1996.

But sadly that was the last Grand Slam she would ever win, as her
remaining years on the Tour were plagued by lengthy injury lay-offs
and watching her father succumb to cancer that - in a cruel twist of
fate - was diagnosed just /days/ after the stabbing. She also had to
contend with a new generation of players who hit the ball just as
hard as she did - and Martina Hingis, who was an even better 'chess'
player.

As well as being a brilliant tennis-player, Monica is also a
wonderful human being. She's always been the person who wants to
please others more than herself - the sort of person who even felt
sorry for her beaten opponents. She always approached tennis with
humble expectations; she was modest in victory and gracious in
defeat. She is generous in her praise of others - and in helping many
of the underprivileged people in this world. She loves working with
children, and I know that's going to be a major priority for her in
her post-tennis life (along with animals, going to college, and
finding a cure for cancer). For what it's worth, I also think she
would make a wonderful mother. Whatever she does with her life in the
future, I wish her every happiness.

Monica will always be the greatest - and my #1 favourite - tennis-
player of all time, and she will always be the true #1 in the hearts
of all Selesians.


=======================================
Andrew's Monica Seles Biography updated
=======================================

I have just updated Monica's biography on my website:
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/biography.html

It is *not* a copy of Monica's standard WTA Tour biography, but my
own detailed appreciation of her game, followed by a review for every
year of her career.

I have edited the introduction (added some things, and sadly
converted it to past tense) and added a review of 2007 (such as it
was).

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