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As a young girl, Monica Seles thought there were only two tennis players in the world, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
Seles turned pro in 1989 and won the French Open in 1990 at the tender age of 16. Over the next few years, she would dominate the sport, winning 30 WTA titles, including eight Grand Slams. In 1993, Seles was stabbed in the back and would never be the same again.
In a 2009 interview with The Guardian, Seles said that she had little knowledge of tennis before leaving her home country of Yugoslavia. The only match shown on TV at the time was the French Open final, leading her to believe that Evert and Navratilova, who contested every final at Roland Garros from 1984 to 1986 were the only players in the sport.
“The only match that was shown on TV in Yugoslavia was the French Open final, I had the feeling that the only two tennis players in the world were Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and they played this one match against each other every year,” she recalled.
“My dad, as an artist, was aware of the dangers of too much structure” – Monica Seles
