The stab in the back that Monica Seles received in the middle of a match at the Hamburg tournament was one of the most remembered acts of violence in sport in the 90s. Shortly after that devious attack, the Serbian tennis player suffered another attack on betrayal and of a massive nature, by the most important tennis players in the world. The only one who took her side was Gabriela Sabatini.
On April 30, 1993, Seles – born December 2, 1973 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia – faced Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva in the quarterfinals of the Hamburg Open. The Serbian nationalized American and Hungarian was winning 6-4, 4-3 when Gunther Parche, a fan of Steffi Graf, stabbed her in the back.
Read also: The day Monica Seles was stabbed: 30 years after the attack by the Steffi Graf fan that ruined her career
The girl who played tennis since she was 5 years old like her brother Zoltan, trained by her father, won the Orange Bowl at 11 and moved to the United States to participate in Nick Bolletieri’s famous academy. After her first professional WTA Tour tournament, at 14, she placed sixth in the rankings. Two years later, at 16, she was the youngest winner at Roland Garros. And at 19 she was stabbed with a kitchen knife.
Mónica Seles on the brick dust of Hamburg after the attack that changed her life. She was hospitalized and was only able to return to tennis after two years. (Photo: AP)
In 1991 he reached first place in the ranking and by 1993, when he suffered the attack, he still maintained it. Although her stab wound did not reach the spinal cord or any vital organ and the player recovered within a month, her emotional problems were very serious. Monica Seles had post-traumatic stress disorder with anxiety, depression and sleep disorders and it took her two years to return to the professional circuit.
The day of the massive betrayal against Monica Seles
Shortly after, the WTA analyzed whether due to the “extraordinary circumstances” that had left Seles out of the circuit, the Serbian tennis player’s world number 1 position was frozen “until more could be known about her injury.”
The golfer was the protagonist in Abu Dhabi. VIDEO.
In the meeting, in which 17 of the 25 most important tennis players in the world at that time participated, all of them voted against this measure, except Gabriela Sabatini. She preferred to abstain, to demonstrate her support for the Serbian.
“She thought as a person, not with the ranking”
“She was the only player who supported me after the attack, that’s why I have a lot of respect and appreciation for her. She thought as a person, not with the ranking. She didn’t think about sponsors or business. She is a different person than the rest of the players who were on the tour. She is very human, she has values,” Monica told a journalist from the tennis site She was good before the exhibition she faced them in New York in 2015.
“I spoke a lot with her when I returned to the tour and afterwards we continued to have a very good relationship. I know she is a person who likes to help. She is involved with a foundation and helps a lot of people. We met again years later and we are still in contact,” added the Serbian.
Monica Seles and Gabriela Sabatini in Buenos Aires in 1990. Photo: Twitter @monicaseles10s
The former tennis player also recalled that she met Gaby at a game in Key Biscayne when she was 14 years old and the Argentine was four years old. “She was already a star and from the first moment she treated me very well. She was a great competitor. She could win or lose, but she always showed a lot of respect. I remember that she had a very heavy top-spin, I think that at that time she was the only one who could hit it like that. She made her playing style very difficult for me,” she added.
For her part, Gaby also recalled her support for the Serbian on campollena.com: “I always thought about human beings. For me the game was over and we were teammates. “I can’t judge anyone, but I felt that it could have happened to me, because she was stabbed by a Steffi fan.”
The Serbian and Gabriela Sabatini faced each other 14 times, with eleven victories for the former and three for the Argentine, including the finals in Rome in 1991 and 1992. Seles’ most valuable victories were in the final of the 1990 Masters and in the semifinals from Roland Garros 1992.
“Monica Seles could have been the biggest winner”
Monica Seles was sweeping the courts. Since February 1992 she had reached 33 finals in 34 tournaments, of which she had won 22. Furthermore, she had achieved eight Grand Slam titles before the attack, and was only able to win one more afterwards (Australia 1996).
Read also: Unmissable: Seles remembered the great gesture of Gabriela Sabatini in her worst moment
The great Martina Navratilova said that the Serbian “could have been the greatest winner of Grand Slam titles, above Margaret Court or Steffi Graf. “Whoever stabbed her changed the history of tennis.” For now, Court continues to lead the all-time ranking, with 24 titles, followed by Serena Williams with 23 and Graf with 22, Helen Wills Moody with 19 and Chris Evert and Navratilova, with 18.
2023-12-02 08:55:00
#treacherous #attack #Monica #Seles #day #Gabriela #Sabatini #defended #stabbed
