Monica Seles and Steffi Graf: A rivalry too good to be true? – Women’s Tennis Blog
It’s no doubt that Monica Seles is one of tennis’ greatest potentials that never fully bloomed and her rivalry with Steffi Graf was undeniably cut short.
Known as the “darkest day in tennis history,” Monica Seles was tragically assaulted in 1993 in what was effectively a career-ending event to a large degree. At just 19 years of age, Seles was already an eight-time Grand Slam winner and was projected to have one of the most successful careers in the history of the sport
In the game of tennis, all it takes is one significant rival to stop you from winning as much as you otherwise could have had that person not been on the scene. A classic example of this is how Andy Murray fell prey time and time again to the ATP’s “Big 3” during his career. More specifically, had world No.1 Novak Djokovic not been around, Murray may well have had an additional five Grand Slam titles to his name.
Similarly, but in a reverse fashion, the absence of Monica Seles during Steffi Graf’s prime years was definitely a major factor in leading to her enormous Grand Slam title count. Of course, it’s more than possible that Graf would have achieved this feat anyway, but at the very least it would have been t
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