Tennis · 1995 · Toronto, Canada
Seles Returns
Twenty-seven months after being stabbed on court by a spectator, Monica Seles returns to competitive tennis at the Canadian Open and wins the tournament.
Won the 1995 Canadian Open
Result
27 months
Time away from tour
Won 6-0, 6-3
First match back
Monica Seles, the dominant force in women's tennis and world number one, was stabbed in the back by a spectator during a changeover at a tournament in Hamburg in April 1993, an attack motivated by a desire to see rival Steffi Graf reclaim the top ranking. The physical wound healed relatively quickly, but the psychological toll kept Seles away from competitive tennis for over two years.
She returned on 15 August 1995 at the Canadian Open in Toronto, awarded a co-number-one ranking by the WTA in recognition of the extraordinary circumstances of her absence. Her first-round match against world number 133 Kimberly Po drew more attention than any first-round match in the tournament's history, and Seles won it comfortably, 6-0, 6-3.
She went on to win the entire tournament, beating Amanda Coetzer in the final, an emotional, complete return capped in her very first event back. The comeback remains one of the most powerful stories in tennis history, a champion returning from a violent, targeted attack to immediate, dominant form.
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