Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

25 years ago tomorrow

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    25 years ago tomorrow

    ,,, on 30 April 1993, a deranged fan of Steffi Graf stabbed Monica Seles on court in Hamburg.

    Seles had won 7 out of the 9 consecutive grand slam singles titles immediately before the stabbing, so seems clearly to have been the best femaie player in the world at the time (and was ranked #1). She never regained that form after more than 2 years away from the tour, and we'll never know how many more slam titles she would have won if it hadn't been for the stabbing.

    #2
    Probably not an anniversary that anyone involved wants to remember.

    Seles was and presumably remains really angry that Parche was never convicted of a crime. But if he really was ill, then, well...

    Comment


      #3
      When Seles appeared on the scene, she copped a lot of criticism for her screams 'n' grunts. Now it's quite surprising when there's a game without the screams 'n' grunts. So Seles certainly changed tennis, even if her career did not meet its full potential.

      Comment


        #4
        Seles was also at the forefront of the stylistic change in the Women's game to power baseliners, which is now the completely dominant style. Graf and Evert before her were precursors (or more like the jumps in racquet technology in the 80s and 90s was really the driving force behind it), but Seles was the next stage of the evolution and the first that looks like a modern player (Graf looks modern on the serve and forehand, but not with her sliced backhands). She was someone with double handed groundstrokes off both wings and an aversion to the forecourt as if it was shark infested, and yet made those advantages rather than limitations in that she moved so well and hit so solidly and accurately from the back that it didn't matter that she was limiting her reach and not moving up the court to shorten rallies as traditional coaches would have told her was essential.

        Let's call the grunting a quirk, and a minor part of her legacy. It's also less ubiquitous than people think, as there is an element of confirmation bias going on - you notice when it's there but tend not to when it's not.
        Last edited by Janik; 29-04-2018, 22:33.

        Comment


          #5
          I hated her prior to the attack – she was also the poster girl, if you can put it that way, for the two-fisted power attack on both wings that swiftly saw the upcoming generation of players fall increasingly into line behind her with that style as the new norm*, whereas I've always been a fan of the more aesthetic single-handed backhand that had predominated before then. The crushing wave of success it brought her, together with the notorious grunting, made her the least likeable player I'd seen.

          Yet the stabbing, curiously, humanised her. Obviously it halted her unstoppable streak dead in its tracks, and she never regained that momentum after regaining her health; obviously too you couldn't not feel for a player who'd gone through that sort of trauma. And by revealing her to be vulnerable, and afterwards both determined and dignified, it lent her a weird sort of grace she'd never come close to approaching previously.

          One thing I'd forgotten was just how young she was: she was still only 19 when the stabbing occurred. She'd already racked up 8 Slam titles as a teenager, for crying out loud. Which makes her still only 44 now. She's married to a 76-year-old, though, an American billionaire.


          * Edit: cross-post with Janik here!

          Comment


            #6
            I remember the shouts. They weren't really grunts, were they. I hadn't realised she was so young when she was attacked.

            For years I've carried round the trivia that her name is an anagram of Camel Noises.

            Comment


              #7
              For years I've carried round the trivia that her name is an anagram of Camel Noises
              Queer blarin' geek (9,6)

              In a posh male (6,5)

              Colin Wanker cozi? Ai! (8,9)

              I'm an arse, L-Lewis (6,8)

              Comment


                #8
                I had no idea how relatively lightly she was injured physically, and that it was the psychological trauma that really derailed her career. I thought the stabbing did major physical damage and that's why she was out for two years, but in terms of her body she could have played tennis six weeks later and been fine.

                Comment


                  #9
                  The assault on Petra Kvitova was far more damaging in terms of pure injury. But the difference is context - Seles was attacked whilst she was on the Tennis court at a tournament. Indeed she was stabbed because of Tennis. So the trauma of the incident was always potentially there when she tried to do her job. Kvitova was seriously injured in a home invasion, which is also a deeply traumatic thing obviously. But it wasn't Tennis related, nor was she specifically targeted unlike Anna Chakvetadze, so she had a better chance of compartmentalising that from playing and was able to return as soon as she was physically capable (Petra still wasn't 100% at the back end of last season, I have heard anything more recent than that). Kvitova's likely trauma is going to be over feeling safe in her own home; she has moved her home residence in the aftermath, to the point of switching country. One assumes the place she now has has some formidable security arrangements. Oh, and her attacker remains unidentified.

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X