Monica Seles inducted into tennis’ Hall of Fame

Monica Seles on Saturday received a well-deserved honor: she was was enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. where she joined such previous inductees as Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.

I think the hall has sometimes cheapened the honor by inducting less accomplished players like Jana Novotna – more famous for the matches she didn’t win than for her lone Wimbledon singles title – and Gabriela Sabatini who, like Novotna, won just one grand slam title and was never ranked number one.

But with Seles, the honor is a no-brainer because she is one of the best to have ever played the game.

Monica, now 35, was the world’s No. 1 women’s player for 178 weeks overall and a winner of nine Grand Slam singles titles. But her reign at the top was interrupted on April 30, 1993 in Hamburg, Germany, when she was stabbed between the shoulder blades by a crazed fan. It would be 2 1/2 years before she returned to the sport and she was never again the dominant player she had been.

“I talk about [the stabbing] openly,” she said during a news conference before being inducted. “As you can see, there’s an exhibit here (about me) at the museum. When we were talking about me going into the Hall of Fame it was, ‘Should we include the stabbing or not?’ Unfortunately it’s part of my career. I wish it wasn’t. It’s a long, long time ago.”

When she was attacked,  was the three-time defending champion of the French Open and back-to-back winner at both the U.S. and Australian Opens. She was also the runner-up at Wimbledon  in 1992 and it seemed inevitable that she would also win the title.

But it took Seles far longer to recover from the emotional wounds of the attack than the physical ones but she finally did return to pro tennis in summer of 1995.

“Coming back in Toronto after my stabbing, I viewed my career in two phases — before stabbing and after stabbing,” she said. “The reception that I got just reinforced my decision to return.”

She still had the stokes but her fitness was suspect and the extra weight she was carrying in the second half of her career led to chronic feet injuries.

Seles went on to win that tournament—the Canadian Open—one of 53 in her career, including the 1996 Australian Open. She also made it to the finals of the US Open in 1995 and 1996 and of the French Open in 1998. Her many fans were hoping for that one last grand slam title win so Monica could have the fairy tale finish to her career that she so deserved.

But just getting back on the court and competing at such a high level for several years after the stabbing was even a bigger triumph.

At the Hall of Fame ceremony,. a grateful Monica told the crowd: “I would like to thank all my tennis fans who were there from Day One when I was No. 1, through my stabbing, and my comeback.”