Athletes

Monica Seles was the dominant player in women's tennis in the early 1990s. She became a tennis sensation in 1990 when, at 16, she became the youngest winner of the French Open in history by beating Steffi Graf in straight sets.
In her career, Seles has won 53 career WTA Tour singles titles, including nine Grand Slam titles - the Australian Open four times, the French Open three times and the U.S. Open twice. Tennis aficionados agree that she would have won even more, but in 1993 she was involved in a serious incident with a crazed fan of rival player, Steffi Graf. Following this incident, she did not play again for over two years, and although she had some further success when she returned to full-time competition, winning the 1996 Australian Open, she was never again able to consistently reproduce her best form.
Born in Novi Sad, Serbia (then Yugoslavia), she began playing tennis at the age of 6, coached by her father Karolj Seles. In 1986, the Seles family moved from Yugoslavia to the United States and she enrolled in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Seles played her first professional tournament in 1988 at the age of 14 and won her first career title at Houston in May 1989, where she beat Chris Evert in the final. From 1991 to 1993, Seles dominated women's tennis, winning 22 titles and reaching 33 finals out of the 34 tournaments in which she played. She had a 55-1 win-loss record in Grand Slam tournaments, the only defeat being in the 1992 Wimbledon final, where she lost to Steffi Graf.
She was nominated for the Women's Sports Foundation's Sportswoman of the Year Award in 1992 and was named the Comeback Player of the Year by the COREL WTA Tour in 1995. After becoming a U.S. citizen, Seles helped the United States win the Federation Cup in 1996 and 2000 and she also won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. In 1998, she became the fourth woman to earn more than $10 million in career prize money. After winning 53 career titles up to 2003, Seles sustained a foot injury that sidelined her from the Tour and effectively ended her career. Seles is currently an Ambassador for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which is an apolitical charitable initiative that uses the positive influence of sport to tackle society's most pressing challenges around the globe, supporting projects on every continent. (11/07)