"I can be one day Madonna and be crazy; the next day, I can be so reclusive" - When Monica Seles opened up about having 'many different' personalities
Monica Seles once opened up about her unpredictable nature, disclosing that she had multiple distinct personalities and never knew which one would emerge on a given day. Seles also expressed her belief that this unpredictability added an element of fun to the sport.
Seles shocked the tennis world by pulling out of the 1991 Wimbledon Championships just three days before the Major began. The then-17-year-old, who held the World No. 1 ranking at the time, cited a "minor injury" in her brief two-paragraph fax to the All England Club.
While reporters and the tennis community clamored to get more information about her withdrawal, Monica Seles simply vanished with her family and friends for three weeks, cleverly using wigs to conceal her appearance.
Shortly after her return to the tour, the Yugoslav-born American entered the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles as the top seed and defending champion. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times ahead of her campaign, Seles addressed her disappearing act and remarked that people would never be able to predict her actions.
She also emphasized the importance of players having more fun, issuing a reminder that tennis is just a sport and not a matter of life or death.
"People are never going to expect how I am going to react," Monica Seles said. "All tennis players, we all say the same thing. So I think we should have a little more fun. This is still a game. We always forget it. This is not death and life."
Monica Seles revealed that she had "many different personalities," humorously disclosing that she could emulate the "crazy" persona of popstar Madonna one day and be completely reclusive the next.
She also shared that her father attributed this to her not being fully developed as a person yet, which was unsurprising considering her young age of 17 at the time.
"I have so many different personalities. Maybe I’m still growing up. I’m still not formed. That’s what my dad says. I can be one day Madonna and be crazy. The next day, I can be so reclusive, so into myself," she said.
"The third day, I can be somebody so different. I’m just really shifting every day or week or hour. It’s fun like that, but it’s hard to take because I can change so fast," she added.
Monica Seles on the importance of taking a break from tennis: "I got to live a normal life because I don’t want to get crazy at an early age"
Given that Monica Seles had already won four Grand Slam titles by the age of 17 and only needed a Wimbledon title to complete the career Grand Slam, her decision to skip the 1991 edition of the grasscourt Major came as a big surprise.
However, the Yugoslav-born American emphasized that people forgot how young she was, not understanding that she needed to take breaks from the sport to avoid burning out at 17 years of age.
"I think people forget that I’m still so young, that I’m not going to be able to handle things exactly as people expect me to. I need my time off. I don’t want to finish my career at age 17," Monica Seles said in the same interview.
Seles also asserted that she needed to live a "normal" life because she didn't want tennis to take over her entire existence.
"I can’t do everything. I got to take my time off, I got to live a normal life because I don’t want to get crazy at an early age and it’s hard. People sometimes talk about you. I just always try to do the best I can. I really want to have my time. Tennis is a big part of my life, but I don’t want it to be my whole life," she added.
It seems that the hiatus from the sport paid off for Monica Seles, as she successfully defended her title at the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, beating Kimiko Date 6-3, 6-1 in the final.