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• Born: 2 December 1973
• Birthplace: Novi Sad, Yugoslavia
• Best Known As: Hard-hitting tennis superstar

Monica Seles became a teen tennis sensation in 1990, when she won the French Open at age 16 and then became the world's number-one ranked female tennis player. Seles was known for her aggressive game and for the distinctive grunts she made with nearly every shot. Her career came to an abrupt halt at a 1993 match when she was stabbed in the back by a crazed fan of tennis star Steffi Graf. The wound was not critical, but Seles was out of tennis for over a year and her days as the game's dominant player were over.

Seles became an American citizen in 1994... In 1990 she became the youngest-ever woman to win the French Open, breaking a record set the previous year by Aranxta Sanchez Vicario.

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For more information on Monica Seles, visit Britannica.com.

(sĕl'ĭs) , 1973–, Yugoslav-American tennis player, b. Serbia, of Hungarian heritage. She won her first major tournament, the French Open, in 1990, at the age of 16 and soon dominated women's tennis. In 1991 and 1992 she won the Australian, French, and U.S. opens. In 1993 she won the Australian Open again before she was stabbed in the back during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, by a self-described fan of Steffi Graf. Although her wound was apparently superficial, Seles stayed away from competitive tennis for two years, disturbed in part by the German courts' failure to deal sternly with her attacker. She returned in 1995 but enjoyed only limited success, winning the 1996 Australian Open and the bronze medal in the 2000 Olympic Games. Seles is noted for the power of her ground strokes.

Yugoslavian-born American tennis player who between 1990 and 1993 won eight Grand Slam championships. She returned to tennis in 1995 after being stabbed on court in 1993 by a spectator.

Quotes:

"I don't believe in playing hurt, in taking injections to cover the pain."