Country SFR Yugoslavia (1988-1992)
Yugoslavia (1992-1993)
United States (from 1995)
Residence Orlando, Florida
Date of birth December 2, 1973 (1973-12-02) (age 36)
Place of birth Novi Sad, Serbia (former Yugoslavia)
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Turned pro 1989
Retired February 14, 2008
Plays Left; Two-handed both sides
Career prize money $14,891,762
Int. Tennis HOF 2009 (member page)
She became the youngest-ever champion at the 1990 French Open at the age of 16. She was the World No. 1 player in the women's game during 1991 and 1992, but in 1993 she was forced out of the sport for more than two years following an on-court attack in which a German spectator stabbed her in the back with a 9-inch-long knife. She enjoyed some success after returning to the tour in 1995, including a Grand Slam singles title at the 1996 Australian Open, but was unable to consistently reproduce her best form. Seles played her last professional match at the 2003 French Open, but her official retirement announcement was not issued until February 2008.
Seles was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in an ethnic Hungarian family. Her parents' name are Eszter and Károly and she has an older brother, Zoltán. She began playing tennis at the age of five, coached by her father. Károly Szeles, who was a professional cartoonist, drew pictures for her to make her tennis more fun. He is also responsible for developing her two-handed style for both the forehand and backhand. In 1985 at the age of 11, she won the Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, and caught the attention of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. In 1986, the Seles family moved from SFR Yugoslavia to the United States, and Seles enrolled at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, where she trained for two years.
Seles played her first professional tournament in 1988 at the age of 14. The following year, she joined the professional tour full-time and won her first career title at Houston in May 1989, where she beat the soon-to-be-retired Chris Evert in the final. A month later, Seles reached the semifinals of her first Grand Slam singles tournament at the French Open, where she lost to World No. 1 Steffi Graf, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3. Seles finished her first year on the tour ranked World No. 6.
