"If I stopped after I was stabbed, I would've been fine for life" - When Monica Seles felt tennis gave her 'freedom' at the expense of her childhood

Monica Seles once candidly reflected on the role that tennis had played in her life. The former World No. 1 revealed that while she had gained significant rewards from her legendary career, there were also major sacrifices she had to make along the way.

An overview of Seles' career proves why she is considered a legend of the sport, given that she won nine Grand Slam singles titles, held the World No. 1 ranking for 178 weeks, and won the year-end championships three times. However, the Yugolav-born American would have likely achieved much more if her career wasn't derailed by her being stabbed on court during the 1993 Citizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany.

Monica Seles was competing against Magdalena Maleeva at the event when Gunter Parche, an obsessive fan of Steffi Graf, stabbed her in the back. Seles then spent more than two years away from the sport, during which time she missed 10 Majors. She also only added one Grand Slam title to her tally before her retirement.

Speaking to Sportstar in 2003, Monica Seles said that the most important thing tennis gave her was financial freedom, since she would've been secure even if she never made a comeback after the stabbing incident. On the other hand, the former World No. 1 acknowledged that she had to sacrifice her childhood and mature too early after breaking through as a teenager.

"Tennis gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted. If I stopped after I was stabbed, I would have been fine for the rest of my life. What it took away was some of my childhood. Maybe I had to grow up a little too fast," Seles said.

Seles also opened up about the challenge of leaving her parents behind to move to Florida as a 12-year-old so that she and her brother Zoltan could train at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy.

"It took away some of the best years of my tennis career" - Monica Seles on her stabbing incident

Monica Seles - Source: Getty

In the same interview, Monica Seles acknowledged that she likely missed out on some of the best years of her tennis career due to the stabbing incident. She mentioned how strange it felt to be the only athlete to suffer such an attack.

However, the nine-time Grand Slam champion expressed her reluctance to dwell on the ordeal given all the grief it caused in her life.

"On my record, because it took away some of the best years of my tennis career, that's for sure. I don't think it left many others. To tell the truth, it's still very strange to me. I'm the only person in sports that this ever happened to. But I don't want to revisit Hamburg in my head. It was not a happy thing, nor was it a happy time," she said.

Monica Seles also revealed that what kept her from being "forever sad" over the incident and helped her overcome her struggles was her love for tennis.