The day Monica Seles was stabbed in the middle of a tennis game

Monica Seles (1973) was a tennis prodigy who won her first tournament at the age of 15 and by the age of 18, she was already number 1 on the WTA. She was arguably one of the best female tennis players in the 20th century.

Who would have thought that a radical Steffi Graf fan (Seles snatched her WTA n.1) would jump onto the court and physically attack Seles? It was a tragic moment for the Serbian national, who almost lost her life.

The incident happened in April 1993, two years after Seles beat Graf in Roland Garros and the Australian Open. The young Serbian talent was shifting ranks faster than some fans could assimilate.

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At just 19 years old, Monica Seles already had 8 Grand Slams and was considered one of the best tennis players in the world.  She faced off in the quarterfinals of the Citizen Cup against Magdalena Maleeva, on the Am Rothenbaum tennis court, in Hamburg, Germany.

The match was going as expected, with Seles dominating 6-4 and 4-3 when the tennis player suddenly noticed a puncture in her back.

A spectator had circumvented the questionable security measures, had sneaked a knife onto the court and stabbed Monica Seles, the world number 1.

The aggressor, named Günter Parche, was a fan of Steffi Graf and was stopped instantly, but the damage had already been done, and Seles was lying on the ground, not really knowing what had happened.

The complicated thing is that Seles was lucky because she crouched down at the time of the attack and the knife only entered her body 3 cm, avoiding further damage.

The following year, 1994, Monica Seles became a North American citizen and in August 1995, more than two years after the attack, she returned to the courts and did so as number 1 in the WTA, sharing the top spot with Steffi Graf for 6 months.

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In fact, on her return to competition, she won the Canada Open, dominating the court. Nevertheless, Seles didn't look or feel the same. The attack had left a negative impact on her, deeply affecting her game.

In addition, Monica Seles suffered from eating disorders and lost her father in 1998, as she herself said in her biography 'Getting a Grip'.

Despite everything, she managed to reach four Grand Slam finals, winning the Australian Open in 1996. Twelve years later, in 2008, she would announce her retirement.

Unfortunately, Günter Parche's action deprived the world of knowing the true limits of Seles's talents on the court.

Martina Navratilova even said that if there had not been an attack, "we would be talking about the player with the most Grand Slam titles in history." But what happened to the aggressor?

Günter Parche, as reported by 'The Guardian', was in prison for half a year and in 1993 he was sentenced to two years of probation and psychiatric treatment, something that the tennis player did not like too much.

Photo: Instagram - @monicaseles10s

"I had a normal life while I was recovering from an attack that could have killed me," Seles herself said in her autobiography. Yes, the aggression that changed the history of tennis came at a steep cost... Let us know what you think in the comments!

Photo: Instagram - @monicaseles10s

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