In her native Yugoslavia at age six, Monica Seles perfected her trademark two-handed forehands and
two-handed backhands
first in empty parking lots with a rope serving as a net before moving onto the traditional tennis courts. In 1985
at age 11, Seles won the Orange Bowl junior tournament at Miami, Florida. A year later she moved with her father
and coach to Florida to train.
In 1988 Seles turned professional. The next year, her first as a full-time pro, in May 1989, Seles weighing
only 90 pounds at age 15 won
her first career title at Houston, Texas on clay, where she beat the American clay court specialist Chris Evert
in the final 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
In 1990 at Berlin, Germany; Seles, who had grown noticably taller, unleashed her power left-handed baseline
game and extreme angles to snap world number one Steffi Graf of Germany's unbeaten streak of 66 matches in
the final 6-4, 6-3. Seles would go on that year to become the youngest ever champion at the French Open at the
age of 16, winning her first of nine grand slam singles titles.
Seles claimed the world number one ranking in
March 1991 and would win the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open all at least twice. Only Wimbledon
eluded her where the wet grass could produce low bounces unfriendly to her two-handed groundstroke grips.
Seles put on one of the greatest displays of power tennis in history at the French Open final in 1992 defeating
Graf 6-2, 3-6, 10-8. An impatient Graf would commit many unforced errors to assist, but it was Seles' groundstroke
winners during the match that were at times breathtaking. Seles had gone 55-1 in grand slam tournaments from
1991 to early 1993.
As a result it appeared in 1993 as if Seles and Graf would produce the greatest rivalry ever in women's tennis
before Seles
was stabbed in the back while she sat during a changeover by a mentally ill Graf fan. Seles returned to tennis
in late
1995 and in January 1996 won her fourth Australian Open singles title, her last grand slam title.
Seles could still overpower a large majority of the WTA Tour, but she would never the same tennis player
as before.
