Monica Seles Stabbing of '93

[Fiero425]

It's a stain on our sport; Seles' stabbing in '93! What are people's thoughts after 22 years? I came across this article and had no idea Graf visited Seles in the hospital! I know it's not her fault, but not sure I could have met like that and "made nice!" No one knows what would have happened if not for this maniac, but it's hard to believe Seles would have allowed Graf to win all those majors in her absence through Aug. of '95! Steffi may have felt bad this occurred in her name, but no one wants to hear about it! :cover :cry :nono

- http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-05-02/sports/9302090508_1_monica-seles-german-tournament-doctors -

Graf Visits Depressed Seles...they Can`t Find Much To Say

May 2, 1993|By IAN THOMSEN, N.Y. Times News Service

HAMBURG, Germany -- Saturday morning Monica Seles greeted Steffi Graf -- the sad, solitary idol of her assailant. They did not know what to say to each other.

``I said to her how I felt, how it also hurt me in a way,`` Graf said. ``We both could hardly speak.

``I came into the room and saw her surrounded by her parents and her brother. She seemed to be feeling badly, especially mentally. We both found it difficult to talk. We just cried.

``I told her that I was very sorry and that we are all thinking about her. She is very depressed. It came back to her more this morning than last night.``

A hospital report said: ``The psychological condition of the patient has been attacked.``

A 38-year-old German lathe operator told police he had stabbed Seles, the world`s No. 1 tennis player, in the back during her match Friday so that Graf, No. 2, could surpass her in the rankings.

``It hurts me even more that it happened in Germany, (by) a German guy and a guy who is apparently a fan of mine,`` Graf said.

The assailant was identified by police only as Guenter P., from the eastern German state of Thuringia. He reportedly told police he had been planning his attack for some time and had stalked Seles all week at the WTA Citizen Cup in Hamburg.

The attacker approached Seles along the bottom row of the grandstand, where she sat resting during her quarterfinal against Magdalena Maleeva.

From behind her he turned and pulled a serrated knife with a 5-inch blade from a bag hidden under his clothing. Leaning over a short spectators` fence, he stabbed Seles between the shoulder blades. The knife made a wound about a half-inch deep.

He was apprehended by a security guard and two spectators. Police said he made ``an insane impression`` during two hours of questioning Friday night. They disputed reports that he had been drinking.

``He said about his motive that he is a fan of Steffi Graf and he could not bear Monica Seles being the momentary No. 1 of the world,`` a police spokesman said.

``He said several times that he did not plan to kill Monica Seles -- he only wanted to make her unable to continue playing. The way things look, he is saying the truth.``

Seles was to spend Saturday night at University Hospital. It was not known when she would leave the hospital or return to tennis. She is expected to miss the French Open, where she is three-time defending champion.

Most threatening to her, though, might be the psychological effect of being attacked on a court.

``When she realizes what has happened to her, I think that`s going to hurt her more than the injury itself,`` said Jana Novotna, who lost her semifinal to Graf 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

``Now she has a good chance to prove to us that she is mentally strong on the court but also that she is mentally strong off the court. I do wish that she will be able to do that.``

Tournament doctors said the wound didn`t injure Seles` lungs or other organs. ``Monica had a lot of luck,`` they said in a statement. ``With this weapon she could have been killed.``

The tournament continued Saturday with the semifinalists admitting to being uncomfortable. The player benches were repositioned 5 feet from the wall, with guards on the stadium floor.

As Graf approached her bench, the guard would rise and turn his back to her and face the audience.

``It disturbed me that the security guard was behind me,`` Graf said, tears welling. :cry :cover

 

[jhar26]

Monica should have been compensated by the tour. There should have been no consequences for Graf since she had nothing to do with it. Graf not competing in slams would only mean that others would have won those titles instead. And the result would be that everyone would say that they only won because neither Seles or Graf were there. Besides, career two Seles wasn't the same player as career one Seles. Following the logic of the poll choice Graf then should also stay away from slams until Seles had lost some weight.

Taking events away from Germany would have made no sense. If a fruitcake would do something like this in the US should the US than lose the USO, Miami, Indian Wells, etc? That would obviously give much too much power to the fruitcake. Giving Monica three or four slams that she hasn't actually won on the tennis court would be completely meaningless imo and unfair to whoever actually won them for real.

 

[Kieran]

A really scary thing is, security still seems lax. Both Roger and Rafa have had intruders get close enough to kill them - in the French Open final! This is unacceptable, but it proves that the Seles stabbing can happen again, and will, if the tournaments don't get serious about security...

 

[jhar26]

A really scary thing is, security still seems lax. Both Roger and Rafa have had intruders get close enough to kill them - in the French Open final! This is unacceptable, but it proves that the Seles stabbing can happen again, and will, if the tournaments don't get serious about security...

No doubt about it. You only need to look at the social media and tennis forums (not so much this one though) to realize that there are some very sick and mentally unstable people out there. Of course, most of it is just posturing, trolling and kiddies putting on the tough guy/girl act on the internet when mummy isn't looking over their shoulder. But some are genuine psychos who could act upon their sick fantasies. Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Serena, Sharapova, Wozniacki, Bouchard are in much bigger danger than Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Lendl, Navratilova, Evert, Goolagong were in the past since the internet gives the crazies the perfect tool to feed of each other.

 

[Federberg]

^It still saddens me deeply. I have had no WTA star that I was more a fan of that Monica. She seemed set to break all the records, and then this tragedy happened :nono I just hope that she has put all this behind her and is leading a happy and fulfilling life. There are some truly sick people in this world.

As an aside, I was infuriated by the French officials response to Roger's complaint about the kid just walking on the show court. Completely unacceptable and shows a complete disregard for the tragedy Monica suffered.

I don't believe I've ever seen anything as eggregious in sport as what happened to Seles. The only other thing (and it doesn't even come close) I can recall is the nutter that tackled the Brazilian(?) marathon runner as he was on his way to a certain victory :cover I believe that same guy tried to do similar things again, and only good fortune and not better security stopped him. It's a problem in a lot of sports

 

[Kirijax]

None of the answers were worth choosing so I didn't. A horrible thing was done by one madman. Seles, Graf, and everyone who was ever involved with tennis lost something and there is no way to make up for it or get it back. The thing that gets me pissed off is that the guy who stabbed Seles never spent time in jail because of some technicality. No wonder Seles refused to ever set foot in Germany again.

And despite what happened 22 years ago, tennis still has not learned how to protect its players. Idiots are jumping out on the court and coming up to the players. It's only a matter of time that something horrible happens again unless the guys in charge get busy and figure it out. There may not be an easy solution but you have to give up something to protect something sometimes. The ATP/WTA/ITF and all the other alphabet groups need to suck it up and do what needs to be done.

 

[Sundaymorningguy]

I do think in light of what happened having the finals in Munich, Germany was very insulting to Seles.

 

[nehmeth]

Besides the affect on Seles mentally, emotionally, and physically. The tour lost a great player, and one could argue, never really got her back full.

But there was another tragedy beyond the attack itself. The dirty bast*rd that did the deed got away without serving any real time.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/14/sports/tennis-seles-s-attacker-gets-suspended-2-year-sentence.html

After letting that piece of crap go free, all tennis tournaments in Germany should have been suspended and other venues found. The stabbing was not Germany's fault. Freeing him was.

 

[Fiero425]

Besides the affect on Seles mentally, emotionally, and physically. The tour lost a great player, and one could argue, never really got her back full.

But there was another tragedy beyond the attack itself. The dirty bast*rd that did the deed got away without serving any real time.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/14/sports/tennis-seles-s-attacker-gets-suspended-2-year-sentence.html

After letting that piece of crap go free, all tennis tournaments in Germany should have been suspended and other venues found. The stabbing was not Germany's fault. Freeing him was.

IIRC, that not only didn't happen, another tournament was added to the women's tour in Germany; a true slap in the face! I won't go into the vindictiveness of the women who objected to Seles having a protected ranking afterwards! :cover :angel: :dodgy:

 

[Federberg]

Besides the affect on Seles mentally, emotionally, and physically. The tour lost a great player, and one could argue, never really got her back full.

But there was another tragedy beyond the attack itself. The dirty bast*rd that did the deed got away without serving any real time.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/14/sports/tennis-seles-s-attacker-gets-suspended-2-year-sentence.html

After letting that piece of crap go free, all tennis tournaments in Germany should have been suspended and other venues found. The stabbing was not Germany's fault. Freeing him was.

IIRC, that not only didn't happen, another tournament was added to the women's tour in Germany; a true slap in the face! I won't go into the vindictiveness of the women who objected to Seles having a protected ranking afterwards! :cover :angel: :dodgy:

Yes agreed. That incident made me turn a bit cold towards Graf, because I didn't feel that she made enough of an effort to show solidarity with Monica. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh but it took Navratilova spending some time with her to give her the confidence to face her fears. I know Graf was still on the tour and her priority was to win titles, but to me this transcended mere tennis. She should have shown more humanity

 

[Fiero425]

Besides the affect on Seles mentally, emotionally, and physically. The tour lost a great player, and one could argue, never really got her back full.

But there was another tragedy beyond the attack itself. The dirty bast*rd that did the deed got away without serving any real time.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/14/sports/tennis-seles-s-attacker-gets-suspended-2-year-sentence.html

After letting that piece of crap go free, all tennis tournaments in Germany should have been suspended and other venues found. The stabbing was not Germany's fault. Freeing him was.

IIRC, that not only didn't happen, another tournament was added to the women's tour in Germany; a true slap in the face! I won't go into the vindictiveness of the women who objected to Seles having a protected ranking afterwards! :cover :angel: :dodgy:

Yes agreed. That incident made me turn a bit cold towards Graf, because I didn't feel that she made enough of an effort to show solidarity with Monica. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh but it took Navratilova spending some time with her to give her the confidence to face her fears. I know Graf was still on the tour and her priority was to win titles, but to me this transcended mere tennis. She should have shown more humanity

Normally people are all for the "so called" underdog and newbie on the tour! Graf was never a fave of mines; even at 15! She personally was rather cold and didn't show any personality until she was close to retiring! Does anyone remember Wimbledon where some guy bellowed from the "stands," asking Steffi to marry him? She spoke loudly for all to hear, "how much money do you make?" It broke up the crowd, but just confirmed what I thought about her all along; too much about money and not enough about the tennis! It doesn't take much for a player to get on my bad side for all time! Chang's underhanded serve against Lendl at FO in '89! Agassi relentless commercialism before winning ANYTHING; "image is everything!" Rafa's whole act on the court with the stalling, toweling off, and challenging of every call! It should be about the tennis, but in that respect I reserve judgment! Sportsmanship is real important to me which is why players like Sampras, Edberg, Federer, Laver, and Borg are the tennis Gawds of all time in more ways than one! :ras: :angel: :dodgy:

 

[jhar26]

IIRC, that not only didn't happen, another tournament was added to the women's tour in Germany; a true slap in the face! I won't go into the vindictiveness of the women who objected to Seles having a protected ranking afterwards! :cover :angel: :dodgy:

Yes agreed. That incident made me turn a bit cold towards Graf, because I didn't feel that she made enough of an effort to show solidarity with Monica. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh but it took Navratilova spending some time with her to give her the confidence to face her fears. I know Graf was still on the tour and her priority was to win titles, but to me this transcended mere tennis. She should have shown more humanity

Normally people are all for the "so called" underdog and newbie on the tour! Graf was never a fave of mines; even at 15! She personally was rather cold and didn't show any personality until she was close to retiring! Does anyone remember Wimbledon where some guy bellowed from the "stands," asking Steffi to marry him? She spoke loudly for all to hear, "how much money do you make?" It broke up the crowd, but just confirmed what I thought about her all along; too much about money and not enough about the tennis! It doesn't take much for a player to get on my bad side for all time! Chang's underhanded serve against Lendl at FO in '89! Agassi relentless commercialism before winning ANYTHING; "image is everything!" Rafa's whole act on the court with the stalling, toweling off, and challenging of every call! It should be about the tennis, but in that respect I reserve judgment! Sportsmanship is real important to me which is why players like Sampras, Edberg, Federer, Laver, and Borg are the tennis Gawds of all time in more ways than one! :ras: :angel: :dodgy:

All that stuff doesn't bother me. My first big tennis idol was Jimmy Connors, which should tell you something.

While I was never a Graf "fan" as such (Evert, Capriati and Hingis were "my girls"), I always rooted for her when she played Seles. I just find players who play double handed on both wings a turn-off, aestetically speaking (Bartoli too). Meanwhile Steffi's game was eye candy. Almost like a female Roger Federer.

 

[Federberg]

^I'm usually with you re: the whole one hander vs two hand thing. Monica was an exception. And it was because I had never seen up until that time (and I would argue since) any player as clutch as her. She just went for it, and rarely missed. It was special to see. Gosh I miss her! :cry

 

[jhar26]

^I'm usually with you re: the whole one hander vs two hand thing. Monica was an exception. And it was because I had never seen up until that time (and I would argue since) any player as clutch as her. She just went for it, and rarely missed. It was special to see. Gosh I miss her! :cry

No doubt about it that Monica was a terrific player and one of the best competitors ever. But my remarks have more to do with personal taste than an objective assessment.