As Monica Seles retires, a look back at how her career might have gone.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/embed><\/p>\nMartina Hingis<\/b> returned to the WTA tour in 2006 after a three year layoff due to foot problems. She managed to work her way up to a year end ranking of number seven and played in the year end championships – very respectable considering her layoff.<\/p>\nAt Wimbledon this year, Hingis tested positive for cocaine. In November she announced her retirement for good. I thought about her when Monica Seles<\/b> announced her retirement this week.<\/p>\nHingis lost something in the time between her first retirement and her return to the tour. She had the same skills that gave her the nickname \u201ccerebral assassin\u201d but she\u2019d lost the drive that allows an athlete to block out distractions and give up everything except practice, travel, and play. The positive cocaine test was an indirect \u2013 and somewhat embarrassing \u2013 confirmation of this. It\u2019s as if some part of her admitted that she didn\u2019t want to go through the grind anymore and forced her to finally retire.<\/p>\nSeles left the tour for two years after a deranged fan of Steffi Graf<\/b> stabbed her in the back during a tournament in Hamburg in 1993. When Seles returned to the tour in 1995, she\u2019d lost her fierceness and that was a huge part of her game. Her two-handed off both sides strokes were ugly, she didn\u2019t have much of a serve, and her net game wasn\u2019t really a net game \u2013 she hit the ball as if she were still standing at the baseline. But she killed you off the ground with ferocious power.<\/p>\nShe still had enough left to get to four slam finals when she returned to the tour, but she only took home one slam title. Before the stabbing, she was 8-1 in slam finals. She didn\u2019t lose all of her fierceness but it was enough.<\/p>\nI understand it. A man threatened me with a hunting knife in the early 1980\u2019s and would have raped me if I hadn\u2019t pretended to have an epileptic fit. I was sure I was going to die. In the months after the attack, I had to leave the room when there was a story on television showing coercion, which is much of prime time programming, and I couldn\u2019t sit through a violent movie. I moved out of my house because my roommate \u2013 a very close friend \u2013 refused to lock the back door. He just didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\nThe next summer I visited Rome. I was up on a hill at a popular tourist site that looks out over the city when a random man walked up behind me and scared me so badly that I relived the attack all over again. Seles\u2019 assailant attacked her in the open air on a tennis court. Before she returned to playing \u2013 which must have been bad enough, she attended a few tournaments but it was an unsettling experience because she kept looking around to make sure no one was lunging at her with a knife.<\/p>\nBefore the stabbing, Seles dominated the tour in Federer-like fashion. She won three slams in both 1991 and 1992 leaving only Wimbledon for Graf to win. Before Seles was stabbed, Graf had eleven slam titles and she\u2019d won a grand slam \u2013 all four slams \u2013 in 1988. She went on to win 22 slams in her career.<\/p>\nWould Graf have won eleven more slams if Seles hadn\u2019t been stabbed? If not, how many?<\/p>\nSeles got to the final of Wimbledon in 1992 and lost to Graf but it was the only time Seles went past the quarterfinals. Graf would have kept her three Wimbledon titles. For sure, Seles would have eaten up two or three more French Opens and a U.S. Open or two. Throw in an Australian Open and Graf\u2019s total would be down to about six slams at most.<\/p>\nThat would bring Graf\u2019s slam total to 17 which is also my guess for how many slams Seles could have won without the interruption in her career. That\u2019s one less than Martina Navratilova<\/b> and Chris Evert<\/b>, a rivalry that Seles and Graf could have duplicated if things had gone differently.<\/p>\nSeles faced Graf in two more slam finals after the stabbing, both times in the U.S. Open and both times she lost. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult that must have been for both players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Monica Seles retires, a look back at how her career might have gone. Martina Hingis returned to the WTA tour in 2006 after a three year layoff due to foot problems. She managed to work her way up to a year end ranking of number seven and played in the year end championships – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Martina Hingis<\/b> returned to the WTA tour in 2006 after a three year layoff due to foot problems. She managed to work her way up to a year end ranking of number seven and played in the year end championships – very respectable considering her layoff.<\/p>\n
At Wimbledon this year, Hingis tested positive for cocaine. In November she announced her retirement for good. I thought about her when Monica Seles<\/b> announced her retirement this week.<\/p>\n
Hingis lost something in the time between her first retirement and her return to the tour. She had the same skills that gave her the nickname \u201ccerebral assassin\u201d but she\u2019d lost the drive that allows an athlete to block out distractions and give up everything except practice, travel, and play. The positive cocaine test was an indirect \u2013 and somewhat embarrassing \u2013 confirmation of this. It\u2019s as if some part of her admitted that she didn\u2019t want to go through the grind anymore and forced her to finally retire.<\/p>\n
Seles left the tour for two years after a deranged fan of Steffi Graf<\/b> stabbed her in the back during a tournament in Hamburg in 1993. When Seles returned to the tour in 1995, she\u2019d lost her fierceness and that was a huge part of her game. Her two-handed off both sides strokes were ugly, she didn\u2019t have much of a serve, and her net game wasn\u2019t really a net game \u2013 she hit the ball as if she were still standing at the baseline. But she killed you off the ground with ferocious power.<\/p>\n
She still had enough left to get to four slam finals when she returned to the tour, but she only took home one slam title. Before the stabbing, she was 8-1 in slam finals. She didn\u2019t lose all of her fierceness but it was enough.<\/p>\n
I understand it. A man threatened me with a hunting knife in the early 1980\u2019s and would have raped me if I hadn\u2019t pretended to have an epileptic fit. I was sure I was going to die. In the months after the attack, I had to leave the room when there was a story on television showing coercion, which is much of prime time programming, and I couldn\u2019t sit through a violent movie. I moved out of my house because my roommate \u2013 a very close friend \u2013 refused to lock the back door. He just didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n
The next summer I visited Rome. I was up on a hill at a popular tourist site that looks out over the city when a random man walked up behind me and scared me so badly that I relived the attack all over again. Seles\u2019 assailant attacked her in the open air on a tennis court. Before she returned to playing \u2013 which must have been bad enough, she attended a few tournaments but it was an unsettling experience because she kept looking around to make sure no one was lunging at her with a knife.<\/p>\n
Before the stabbing, Seles dominated the tour in Federer-like fashion. She won three slams in both 1991 and 1992 leaving only Wimbledon for Graf to win. Before Seles was stabbed, Graf had eleven slam titles and she\u2019d won a grand slam \u2013 all four slams \u2013 in 1988. She went on to win 22 slams in her career.<\/p>\n
Would Graf have won eleven more slams if Seles hadn\u2019t been stabbed? If not, how many?<\/p>\n
Seles got to the final of Wimbledon in 1992 and lost to Graf but it was the only time Seles went past the quarterfinals. Graf would have kept her three Wimbledon titles. For sure, Seles would have eaten up two or three more French Opens and a U.S. Open or two. Throw in an Australian Open and Graf\u2019s total would be down to about six slams at most.<\/p>\n
That would bring Graf\u2019s slam total to 17 which is also my guess for how many slams Seles could have won without the interruption in her career. That\u2019s one less than Martina Navratilova<\/b> and Chris Evert<\/b>, a rivalry that Seles and Graf could have duplicated if things had gone differently.<\/p>\n
Seles faced Graf in two more slam finals after the stabbing, both times in the U.S. Open and both times she lost. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult that must have been for both players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Monica Seles retires, a look back at how her career might have gone. Martina Hingis returned to the WTA tour in 2006 after a three year layoff due to foot problems. She managed to work her way up to a year end ranking of number seven and played in the year end championships – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}