“Their money was tied up to the ranking system,” Monica Seles blasted the ‘cruel injustice’ after being stabbed by obsessed Steffi Graf fan
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Monica Seles and Steffi Graf
Monica Seles was one of the biggesy#t names in the tennis fraternity back in the 90s. By the time she turned 22, Monica Seles already had 9 major singles titles to her name. However, everything came to a crashing end in 1993, when she was struck by an unfortunate incident.
Monica Seles was brutally stabbed by an obsessed Steffi Graf fan while competing at the Citizen Cup in Hamburg. Monica, who was aged just 19 back then was in the middle of her quarterfinal encounter against Magdalena Maleeva. The stabber wanted to end her career, so that Steffi Graf could dominate women’s tennis once again, and claim her world number one ranking once again.
In an interview dated to 2009, Monica Seles opened up on the aftermath of the incident, where she feels justice had still not been served to her. She was also unhappy with the German Tennis Federation, who turned a blind eye to the entire incident, and let the tournament continue as planned.
“In terms of the game itself, it was like the stabbing never occurred. One problem was that it happened in Germany and was ‘because’ of a German player. The German federation decided to continue the tournament as if nothing had happened, and everyone else seemed to follow on from that,” Monica said, as stated by Guardian.
“They just wanted me to go away,” Monica Seles on the aftermath of the stabbing incident
Monica Seles stated that the authorities could not care less about the entire incident, and just wanted to sideline her. The nine-time champion also recalled that Steffi Graf did pay her a visit to the hospital, but that was more like a formality.
“(Steffi Graf visited) for a minute or two. It was one of those things. But it felt like everyone benefited from the stabbing except me. They just wanted me to go away, it felt like. I was 19 years old. Their money was tied up to the ranking system, and that was obviously an issue,” she revealed.
Monica Seles recalled that grave injustice was dished out to her, as the guilty was never punished for his offence. The former tennis player also sued the German authorities for their lack of security, and lost substantial income in this process.
“The trial kept going on and on. One trial after another. Later I tried to sue the German Tennis Federation for lack of security and lost income, and I lost those cases, too. It was hard to cope with the fact that the guy was not even sent to prison. It did not feel like justice to me,” she added.
Monica Seles added that she lost almost everything because of that incident. Although, she did manage to recover and win another major three years later, her career was never really the same.
“I had grown up on a tennis court – it was where I felt most safe, most secure – and that day in Hamburg everything was taken away from me. My innocence. My rankings, all my income, endorsements – they were all cancelled. And the one person who could have comforted me really, who understood what it meant, my father, was of course facing this awful illness,” she concluded.
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Nirmit Mehta
(2425 Articles Published)