Monica Seles is a retired Yugoslavian tennis player. Born in Novi Sad, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia . She played her first professional tournament at 14 winning her first title in 1989, later on she reached her first Glad Slam singles tournament losing in the semi finals against Steffi Graff before finishing the year ranked at number 6. In 1990 at the French open Seles won her first Grand Slan beating the world number 1 Steffi Graf becoming the worlds youngest ever female singles winner at the French Open. In 1991 she won her first Australian Open tournament beating Jana Novotna and won the French Open tournament by beating Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, later on replacing Steffi Graf as the the number one ranked women’s tennis player. In 1992 she defended her titals in the Australian, US, and French Opens. By the end of 1993 Monica Seles won 22 titles and completed 33 of her 34 tournaments winning her fourth Grand Slam win against Steffi Graf.
During a quarterfinal match in 1993 in Hamburg, Germany a psychologically unstable fan of Steffi Graf named Gunter Parche ran onto the court during the match and stabbed Seles with a 9 inch boning knife between her shoulder blades. After being rushed to the hospital Seles did not return to playing tennis for 2 years. In 1995 she won her first match at the Canadian Open beating Amanda Coetzer; followed by winning the Australian Open again in 1996.
On February 14, 2008 Monica Seles officially retired from professional tennis. She is listed by tennis magazine as the “13th greatest player of all time (men and women)”. She was the first women’s tennis player to win 6 Grand Slam Singles Finals and the second women’s tennis player to win 3 consecutive French Open tittles
Championships
Grand Slam Singles
1990 – French Open
1991 – Australian Open / French Open / US Open
1992 – Australian Open / French Open
1993 – Australian Open
1996 – US Open
Source: www.wtatennis.com