TONY
I loved watching Monica, even if I am not particularly attracted to her brand of tennis. I really admired her fighting spirit on court, her determination, her grit and never-say-die attitude. Unfortunately, these qualities went missing after the stabbing. I don’t want to belittle her pain and anguish and trauma. But how I wish she called on all those qualities she showed on court and demonstrated them off it as well, determined as it were to get back into the game and to beat all comers on, DESPITE the pain and the anguish and the trauma, in fact BECAUSE OF and USING the pain and the anguish and the trauma to catapult her to even higher heights. But no, she took her time, she put on weight, she basically let the tennis go; she allowed the stabbing to determine her life as a person and as an athlete. Again, I guess I should say I want to understand where she was, a victim, but how I wish she did not allow more than two years to get by before she returned to tennis… By the time she got back, it was too late. She still played brilliant tennis from time to time, and she beat Graf in the Aussie Open 99 and bageled her in the second set of their first meeting in the finals of the US Open 95. But of the five matches they played post-stabbing (1995-1999), Graf beat her four times. Martina Hingis came into the scene and she beat Seles regularly (Hingis-Seles are 15-5 head to head, 1996-2002; Graf-Hingis are 7-3, 1995-1999).
Tennis Planet 
