Which Tennis Player Got Stabbed?

In 1993, tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed by a fan of her opponent Steffi Graf.

Introduction

On December 20, 1993, tennis player Monica Seles was injured by a man who stabbed her in the back with a nine-inch blade during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany. The attack sent Seles to the hospital for two months and kept her off the professional circuit for more than two years.

GÜnter Parche, the man who attacked Seles, said he was a fan of German player Steffi Graf and wanted her to regain the world’s No. 1 ranking. (Seles had taken over the top spot after unseating Graf in 1991.) Parche was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and given a suspended sentence. He was never jailed.

In the years following the attack, Seles battled anxiety and depression but eventually returned to tennis. She won nine major titles before retiring in 2008.

Early life and family

Monica Seles was born on December 2, 1973, in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), the youngest child of Karolj and Esther Seles. She has two older brothers, Zoltán and Goran. Seles’s parents were Hungarian-born immigrants of German descent who had settled in Yugoslavia during the 1950s. In the early 1970s, they settled in Severin na Kanali in Osijek-Baranja County (eastern Croatia), where Monica started to play tennis; her parents moved to Novi Sad a few years later.

Seles has referred to her family home growing up as a “little corner of history”. When she was four years old and bedridden from pneumonia for a week, her father brought a one-walled tennis court into her room so she could watch him play tennis while she recovered. By age six, Seles was playing competitive tennis against boys just three to four years older than her; at age eight, she joined the Novi Sad Tennis Club where Jelena Genčić first spotted her playing tennis.

Career

Petra Kvitova is a Czech professional tennis player. She is a two-time Wimbledon singles champion, a Olympian, and a Fed Cup champion. Kvitova has also won eight WTA titles and two WTA Premier Mandatory titles. In 2020, she reached the No. 2 ranking in the world for the first time in her career.

On December 20, 2020, Kvitova was attacked at her home in Prostejov by an intruder who stabbed her in the left hand. Kvitova underwent surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.

Death

In 1993, tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back by a crazed fan of rival player Steffi Graf. Seles, who was 20 years old at the time, was ranked No. 1 in the world and had just won the French Open. The attack occurred during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, and Seles was forced to miss two years of competition while she recovered.

Aftermath

It was a attack that left the tennis world in shock. In 1993, Monica Seles, then the No. 1 player in the world, was stabbed in the back by a deranged fan of her chief rival, German player Stefanie Graf. The incident occurred during a tournament stop in Hamburg, Germany, and Seles would never be quite the same again.

Reception

In 1985, tennis player Jouko Valkamo was stabbed in the back by a fan during a match in Helsinki, Finland. Though his injuries were not life-threatening, the incident was a shocking reminder of the dangers faced by professional athletes.

See also

Please see our related article, “Which Tennis Player Got Stabbed?” for more information.