A mature, new model Monica Seles made a return to Wimbledon, but it was cut short in the second round
TENNIS: Mick Cleary
IT MUST have been a relief to feel the pain. It was real, it hurt and it could be precisely located. After more than two years spent chasing shadows in her mind, desperately trying to pin down the taunting voices of doubt and fear which stalked her thoughts, Monica Seles finally had an enemy of substance to confront, a simple logic to focus on: she had a nagging shoulder injury, lots of people got them, she was normal.
The rehabilitation of Monica Seles may not yet be complete — she was bundled out in the second round of Wimbledon on Wednesday by Slovakia’s Katarina Studenikova — but the evidence of the previous week in Eastbourne suggests that she has at last figured out how to deal with the most difficult opponent she has ever had to face — herself. The terrible events of Hamburg 1993, when a deranged obsessive plunged a knife into her back as she sat at courtside, have finally been put into some sort of perspective. They’ll never be forgotten but they are understood.
It took Seles two years and three months before she was able to step back on a tennis court. The physical injury healed quickly: the mental wound was altogether more damaging and deeper-rooted. But back she did come, first in an exhibition match against Martina Navratilova last August and then for real at the US Open a month later when she lost to Steffi Graf in one of the finest women’s finals ever.
And now it’s Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam tournament she has never won. It’s easy to forget just how imperious Seles was and how tantalising her potential was. Prior to the assault, Seles, then 19, had won eight of the 14 Grand Slam tournaments she had entered. At the same stage of their careers Navratilova had not won any Grand Slams, Graf only one and Chris Evert five.
But grass does not suit her game of pounding baseline ground strokes. She’s making an effort to adapt, to broaden her repertoire of shots and to cajole her instincts into approaching that dreadful stringy thing in the middle of the court called the net. She is determined, however, not to become obsessed about chasing the Wimbledon rainbow. If it all comes together, then fine; if not, well, there’s always tomorrow. By far the most impressive part of her game has been the down-to-earth approach she has adopted.
”I’ve told myself to see this first year back at Wimbledon as a treat,” says Seles. ”I want to relive all the stuff I first felt but didn’t appreciate at the time. I was a baby when I was here before and you just don’t take things in. It’ll be so exciting although pressurised as well because the spotlight at Wimbledon is fiercer than anywhere else. But I’m not going to get frustrated and mad with myself if it doesn’t go well for me. Of course I want to win it but I don’t want it to dominate me. I saw what happened to Ivan Lendl. If you want something too badly then you can mentally block yourself.”
This Kiplingesque equanimity sounds strange coming from one whose sheer competitive will and iron nerve broke many an opponent. Perhaps it is a sign of a new maturity, one induced by circumstance as well as mere age. There were some who found it strange that Seles’s recovery should be so protracted. After all, it was only a one-inch knife wound.
The only answer to that daft assessment is that some of us find it strange that a young girl should spend her youth smashing a tiny ball for hour upon hour, live her life out of a suitcase, be pestered by paparazzi and miss out on the normal distractions on offer to pre-pubescent girls. It’s a wonder any of them do survive.
Even Graf, for so long a seeming oasis of sanity in a driven world, has buckled under the strain of the allegations against her father, Peter, who is currently awaiting trial, charged with massive tax evasion. Elsewhere the tribulations of Jennifer Capriati continue.
Seles (22) appears now to have some sort of handle on her own place in this pressured, crazy tennis world in which it’s not just the rackets that are highly strung. She sees her shoulder problem as just one of those things. The fact that she is overweight is a concern but not an issue. ”I have a friend who suffered from bulimia,” said Seles earlier in the year. ”I’ve promised myself that whatever pressures society puts you under it’s not worth it. You’re taught to be pretty and in perfect shape. But the most important thing really is to have balance.”
Seles retains some of the features from her youth. She still grunts on court, giggles a lot, fiddles and frets when talking and has the same screwed-up, gawky, chipmunk face when punching the ball away. She was never the most popular girl in the locker room. Her rivals found her a touch contrived and manipulative. She is close to her family. She works out with her brother, Zoltan, and is coached by her father, Karolj. For the past two years she has had to watch her father battle against cancer.
She was set though on making the best her return to Wimbledo after a four-year absence. ”It’s a great place, Wimbledon, and a great championship,” said Seles. ”I grew up watching it. The other night I saw Borg-McEnroe on TV here. We just don’t have that sort of excitement any more. I’d love to be able to absorb it all a bit more. It’s difficult to step back from the business of trying to win but I’m going to try.
”I remember watching a match back in 1990. Gosh, I was only 16. Along the row were all these old Wimbledon champions, ladies of, oh, 70 or 80. I thought how lovely it would be to be like them one day, to just enjoy it all. For me, at the moment, it’s just got to be tennis, focus, tennis, focus.”
There were times when Monica Seles was not able to set her sights even that far. Her vision now is perhaps the better for it.