"The NBA would have stood right behind Michael Jordan" - When Monica Seles criticized WTA for hosting WTA Finals in Germany after stabbing verdict
Monica Seles once criticized the WTA for hosting the WTA Finals in Germany, the very country where she was stabbed.
Seles dominated women's tennis in the early 1990s and already had eight Grand Slams to her name by the time she was 19. However, her career hit a roadblock in 1993 when she was stabbed by Gunter Parche, a deranged Steffi Graf fan, while competing in Hamburg.
Parche was not given any prison sentence because he was declared "psychologically abnormal", and was sentenced to psychiatric treatment and two years of probation.
As a result of the stabbing, Seles was out of tennis for two years and while she did win a Grand Slam after returning, she was not the same player she had been during her heyday.
The Yugoslav-American was far from happy when the WTA decided to host the 2001 edition of the WTA Finals (then known as the WTA Tour Championships) in Munich and found out the news while reading the newspaper USA Today.
Seles criticized the WTA for not discussing the matter with her after the mishap in Hamburg.
"I thought someone would have asked me or talked about it, but there was nothing. A courtesy call would not have been too much trouble. The whole episode has hurt me personally," Monica Seles was quoted as saying by the BBC in 2000.
The-then 26-year-old was disappointed with the fact that her attacker was not given any sort of punishment for his deeds. She claimed that she wasn't given any help, adding that basketball star Michael Jordan would have been supported by the NBA had he been on the receiving end of a similar incident.
"What people seem to be forgetting is that this man stabbed me intentionally and he did not serve any sort of punishment for it. That has been very difficult for me to deal with. If something like that had happened to, say, Michael Jordan, the NBA would have stood right behind him, but I was not given any help," the former World No. 1 stated.
Seles stated that she would not agree with the decision to shift the Year-end Championships to Munich and could not see herself returning to Germany because of the justice system's verdict on her case.
"I do not agree with the decision to move the tournament to Munich. Sometimes you can make a decision motivated by money, but you have also got to see the bigger picture," Monica Seles said.
"One of my best friends is German and he keeps telling me how I should go back, because I have a lot of fans over there. But I would not feel comfortable going back. I don't foresee that happening. I don't have anything against the cities involved, but the justice system, in my case, really messed up," she added.
Seles stuck to her vow and did not compete in the 2001 WTA Tour Championships despite qualifying.
Monica Seles has won the WTA Year-end Championships thrice
Monica Seles won the WTA Year-end Championships thrice throughout her career, with her triumphs coming in successive years.
The former World No. 1's first title came in 1990, when she beat Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the final. She successfully defended her title in 1991 by beating Martina Navratilova 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 in the title clash. The two locked horns in the 1992 final as well, with Seles winning 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 to win the Year-end Championships for the third time in a row.
The former World No. 1's final appearance in the tournament came in 2002 when she reached the quarterfinals before losing to Venus Williams.