This article, by Mark Hodgkinson in Dubai, appeared in The Daily
Telegraph (British newspaper) on Tuesday:
>>>
MONICA SELES was asked yesterday about her approaching "10-year
anniversary". The giggling stopped. In 1993 Günther Parche invaded a
Hamburg tennis court and stabbed Seles in her left shoulder-blade.

A decade on, the mental pain remains. Seles still will not return to
Germany and remains angry that Parche, who pleaded insanity and
received a suspended two-year sentence, was not jailed.

"It's just that when someone does that to me, and doesn't spend one
day in jail, I don't want to go back," said Seles, who was furious
with the WTA in 2001 when they organised their season-ending
championships in Munich without consulting her. "You never think
never, but it's hard because of what happened. I'm pretty strong with
principles. I just feel that justice wasn't done."

The 29-year-old American stressed that she isn't anti-German. Andreas
Bibek, a "gentleman" from Hamburg, has been her hitting partner this
week at the Dubai Women's Open, where she is seeded fourth and
projected to meet Amélie Mauresmo inthe semi-finals.

"People have taken it that I'm against Germany, but the gentleman
here, my hitting partner, he's from Hamburg, so it's not anything
like that," she said. "Maybe down the road it will change."

On April 30, 1993, Parche bypassed security at the Hamburg Open and
attacked the then teenager, who was sitting at the chair during a
changeover. The loner, an unemployed lathe operator, wanted to rid
the tennis scene of Seles and allow the subject of his obsession,
Steffi Graf, to get back to the world No 1 spot. It worked.

Seles, who had won eight of the 11 Grand Slams she contested between
May 1990 and January 1993, was scarred mentally more than physically
and did not play again for 27 months. The court was where she had
felt the safest - and she had been stabbed in the back.

Depression, panic attacks and an over-eating disorder followed, but
Seles maintained yesterday that the knife attack had not warped her
personality. "No, I'm still the same little old me," she said. "I've
got the same friends that I had, same everything - the only thing
that has changed is that I have a nicer house. But, besides that, the
same. That's what has kept me grounded mentally."

Seles, who added her ninth major at the 1996 Australian Open, but has
never recovered the snap of the "before" years, has often been asked
when she will quit, but continues to play tennis for the sole reason
that it makes her happy.

"I think I'd want a new challenge at some point. Right now I'm happy,
but it could stop tomorrow. Some weeks I'm OK, some weeks I
struggle," she said.
<<<

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/