Career interrupted: Seles was power personified

Published 10:10 pm Tuesday, April 30, 2013

It’s a cliché to ask someone, “Do you remember where you were when this happened?”

Well, on April 30, 1993, I was just coming out of my first afternoon class and walking across the quad at Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Mass.

I decided to stop by my dorm for a quick second and take a peek at the T.V. in our common room. The room was usually vacant around then (I lived in a three-floor dorm with only one television), so this gave me a good opportunity to check out ESPN.

I think it was Bob Ley, who gave the news, but that part is a little foggy in my memory. What is crystal clear was hearing that Monica Seles had been stabbed — not at home, although that would’ve been just as bad — but during her match in Germany.

How?

A German man by the name of Gunter Parche ran down the stairs during a changeover and had stabbed her in the back. Back then, it was customary for the players’ benches to be right up next to the crowd. Fans could almost reach out and touch their favorites when they were resting.

Not anymore.

The shocking image is burned into memory of this man being tackled and pulled back by security personnel while a visibly stunned, shaken and forever changed Seles sat on the court with a glassy-eyed expression as others tended to her wound.

Parche did this because he was jealous of Seles and wanted Steffi Graf to return to being the unquestioned best.

The sickest thing of all is this attack produced what he wanted. Seles did not return to tennis for nearly three years and Graf won six majors in Seles’ absence.

You see, Seles was not just good; she was extraordinary.

She brought a whole new facet to tennis that had been lacking since Martina Navratilova’s glory days — power.

Big-time power.

And Seles had taken that to a whole different level.

Most of the top female players in the early 90s had decent forehands, and some employed two-handed backhands with the Graf slice backhand the usual shot.

Seles had a two-handed backhand and a two-handed forehand. Full throttle … full power from the moment she stepped on the court until the final handshake.

I got to see it firsthand in November 1990. My school organized a trip to New York’s Madison Square Garden to watch the Women’s Final of the Virginia Slims. It would feature Gabriela Sabatini and upstart Seles, who had just won her first major, the French Open, that June.

I was a high school tennis player but it was the draw of going to Madison Square Garden that prompted me to sign up.

What I witnessed was the only five-set match in Seles’ career.

Gaby Sabatini was the “it” girl with graceful, powerful strokes. She was also beautiful.

The Argentinean had just beaten top-seed Graf in the semifinals, so in my mind the plucky little Seles did not have a chance.

The match began — and Seles’ infamous grunts began. Louder and louder they went with each stroke. I began silently wishing for Sabatini to win this quickly so it would stop. Besides, I had just seen Jennifer Capriati walking to a media interview, so my day was made.

The two players split the first two sets and Sabatini won the third set. In any other tournament, this would be the end of the match, but not the Virginia Slims. It was best-of-five sets just like men’s matches.

Seles showed her resolve and battled for every point, slowly turning what had been an all-out cheer for “Gaby, Gaby Gaby,” into a split support for Seles to actually force this to a fifth set.

She did, producing a huge positive cheer from the near-capacity crowd at the Garden.

Sabatini was out of gas after losing the fourth set and Seles showed why she was on track to be No. 1, blowing her off the court in the fifth set to win, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

The whole drive back to school, I remember thinking what a great match I had witnessed.

Seles eventually did come back to professional tennis and won a major, but was never the same after that stabbing.

But for those of us fortunate to see her in action at the peak of her career, it was unmistakable and unforgettable.