30 years ago: The assassination of Monica Seles

The assassination of Monica Seles shook the tennis world and changed the life of the former world number one. On Sunday it will be the 30th anniversary.

© Getty Images

Monica Seles’ love for tennis has remained. In Indian Wells, the former world number one recently watched a performance by top star Carlos Alcaraz – the exceptional player who, at the age of 19, is about to shape an era. “I’m surprised by his mental and physical strength,” the 49-year-old told Marca.

Making his mark on the tennis world in his teens – Seles once did, even more emphatically than Alcaraz. The world number one from Yugoslavia had already won seven Grand Slams with her power tennis and was well on the way to breaking all previous records. But then her life changed so brutally on a Friday in Hamburg. Sunday marks the 30th anniversary of the Rothenbaum assassination.

Attack in Hamburg

“A fraction of a second made me a different person,” Seles wrote in her 2009 biography “Immer wieder auflangen” about the shocking experiences that she hardly speaks about to this day: The mentally confused Günter Parche from Thuringia had the then 19-year-old on April 30, 1993 during a break in their quarterfinals at the WTA tournament in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, attacked from behind with a boning knife. The unemployed lathe operator wanted to see his dethroned idol Steffi Graf win again.

“I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone hitting Steffi Graf,” Parche said during his interrogation. The psychiatric report diagnosed the perpetrator with “an unreal idealization with probably unconscious sexual elements and a fanaticism that went to the point of self-sacrifice”. The judicial authorities in Hamburg later only sentenced him to a suspended sentence for dangerous bodily harm, which Seles couldn’t get over: “I can’t understand why this person didn’t have to pay for his crime.”

Seles wins again after comeback in Melbourne

The physical wounds of the terrible attack healed after weeks, fortunately the knife had penetrated just under two centimeters between the spine and shoulder blade. The mental injuries remained. From then on, the dominant player in women’s tennis no longer felt comfortable on the center courts and sat out more than two years. Seles felt anxiety, suffered from depression and eating disorders.

After the highly acclaimed comeback in August 1995 in Toronto, she once again triumphed in a Grand Slam tournament with two-handed forehand and backhand: In 1996 she won the final in Melbourne in straight sets against Anke Huber. Seles no longer achieved the exceptional position in her sport. Graf, who visited her in the hospital in Hamburg, won title after title.

Seles came back to life. After the end of her career, she overcame her eating disorders, wrote books and married the American billionaire Tom Golisano, who was 32 years her senior. And every now and then she also enjoys attending the matches of a new, impressive generation of tennis players, who are much more closely guarded today than they were 30 years ago.