Cambridge Encyclopedia :: Cambridge Encyclopedia Vol. 52

Monica Seles - Grand Slam singles finals, Titles (59), WTA Tour career earnings, Trivia

Tennis player, born in Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro (former Yugoslavia). In 1990 she became the youngest woman to win a ‘Grand Slam’ singles title in the 20th-c, winning the French Championship at 16 years 169 days (a record broken by Hingis in 1997). She was also the youngest player to win the Australian Open in 1991, and before she reached 18 she had won three out of four Grand Slam singles titles. In 1993 she was unable to play for some months following an incident on court in which she was stabbed by a deranged fan of Steffi Graf. Though seldom the same force subsequently, she won the 1996 Australian Open title. She became a US citizen in 1994.

Olympic medal record
Women’s Tennis
Bronze 2000 Sydney Singles

Monica Seles (born 2 December 1973) is a Hungarian-American and former Yugoslavian professional tennis player.

Seles is single and lives in Florida

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (9)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1990 French Open Steffi Graf 7-6(6), 6-4
1991 Australian Open Jana Novotná 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
1991 French Open (2) Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario 6-3, 6-4
1991 U.S. Open Martina Navratilova 7-6(1), 6-1
1992 Australian Open (2) Mary Joe Fernandez 6-2, 6-3
1992 French Open (3) Steffi Graf 6-2, 3-6, 10-8
1992 U.S. Open (2) Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario 6-3, 6-3
1993 Australian Open (3) Steffi Graf 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
1996 Australian Open (4) Anke Huber 6-4, 6-1

Runner-ups (4)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1992 Wimbledon Steffi Graf 6-2, 6-1
1995 U.S. Open Steffi Graf 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-3
1996 U.S. Open Steffi Graf 7-5, 6-4
1998 French Open Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario 7-6(5), 0-6, 6-2

Titles (59)

Singles (53)

Legend
Grand Slam (9)
WTA Championships (3)
Tier I Event (9)
WTA Tour (32)
Titles by Surface
Hard (28)
Clay (14)
Grass (1)
Carpet (10)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. May 25, 2002 Madrid, Spain Clay Chanda Rubin 6-4, 6-2

Doubles (6)

No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents in the final Score
1. May 13, 1990 Italian Open, Rome, Italy Clay Helen Kelesi Laura Garrone
Laura Golarsa
6-3, 6-4
2. March 31, 1991 San Antonio, USA Hard Patty Fendick Jill Hetherington
Rinaldi Stunkel
7-6(2), 6-2
3. May 12, 1991 Italian Open, Rome, Italy Clay Jennifer Capriati Nicole Bradtke
Elna Reinach
7-5, 6-2
4. May 10, 1992 Italian Open, Rome, Italy Clay Helena Suková Katerina Maleeva
Barbara Rittner
6-1, 6-2
5. September 27, 1998 Tokyo, Japan Hard Anna Kournikova Mary Joe Fernandez
Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario
6-4, 6-4

Singles finalist (32)

1989: Dallas (lost to Martina Navratilova) 1989: Brighton (lost to Steffi Graf) 1991: Indian Wells (lost to Martina Navratilova) 1991: San Antonio (lost to Steffi Graf) 1991: Hamburg (lost to Steffi Graf) 1991: Rome Masters (lost to Gabriela Sabatini) 1991: San Diego (lost to Jennifer Capriati) 1991: Oakland (lost to Martina Navratilova) 1992: Rome Masters (lost to Gabriela Sabatini) 1992: Wimbledon (lost to Steffi Graf) 1992: Los Angeles (lost to Martina Navratilova) 1992: Montreal (lost to Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario 1993: Paris (lost to Martina Navratilova) 1995: US Open (lost to Steffi Graf) 1996: US Open (lost to Steffi Graf) 1996: Oakland (lost to Martina Hingis 1997: Miami Masters (lost to Martina Hingis) 1997: Charleston (lost to Martina Hingis) 1997: Madrid (lost to Jana Novotná) 1997: San Diego (lost to Martina Hingis) 1998: French Open (lost to Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario) 1998: Moscow (lost to Mary Pierce) 1999: Toronto (lost to Martina Hingis) 1999: Tokyo (Princess Cup) (lost to Lindsay Davenport) 2000: San Diego (lost to Venus Williams) 2000: New Haven (lost to Venus Williams) 2000: WTA Tour Championships (lost to Martina Hingis) 2001: San Diego (lost to Venus Williams) 2001: Los Angeles (lost to Lindsay Davenport) 2002: Tokyo (lost to Martina Hingis) 2003: Tokyo (lost to Lindsay Davenport) 2003: Dubai (lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne)

Doubles finalist (3)

1997: Chicago (with Lindsay Davenport) 1998: Philadelphia (with Natasha Zvereva) 1999: Miami Masters (with Mary Joe Fernandez)

Performance timeline

Tournament Career Win-Loss Career SR 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Australian Open 43-4 4 / 8 A A A W W W A A W A A SF A QF SF 2R
French Open 54-8 3 / 11 A SF W W W A A A QF SF F SF QF A QF 1R
Wimbledon 30-9 0 / 9 A 4R QF A F A A A 2R 3R QF 3R QF A QF A
US Open 53-10 2 / 12 A 4R 3R W W A A F F QF QF QF QF 4R QF A
Grand Slam SR N/A 9 / 40 0 / 0 0 / 3 1 / 3 3 / 3 3 / 4 1 / 1 0 / 0 0 / 1 1 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 2 0 / 4 0 / 2
Grand Slam Win-Loss 180-31 N/A 0-0 11-3 13-2 21-0 27-1 7-0 0-0 6-1 17-3 11-3 14-3 16-4 12-3 7-2 17-4 1-2
WTA Tour Championships 18-6 3 / 9 A QF W W W A A A 4R 4R QF A F A QF A
Tokyo 9-4 0 / 4 NH NH NH NH NH A A A QF A A SF A A F F
Indian Wells1 17-5 1 / 6 NH A A F W A A A A A A 3R QF 2R SF A
Miami 32-7 2 / 9 2R A W W QF A A A A F 3R 4R SF A SF A
Charleston 12-5 0 / 5 A A A A A A A A A F SF 3R SF A 3R A
Berlin 5-0 1 / 1 A A W A A A A A A A A A A A A A
Rome 21-5 2 / 7 A A W F F A A A A 3R 3R A W A A 2R
Toronto/Montreal 31-3 4 / 7 A A A A F A A W W W W F A SF A A
Moscow 3-1 0 / 1 NH NH NH NH NH NH NH NH A A F A A A A A
Finalist 32 N/A 0 2 0 6 4 1 0 1 2 4 2 2 3 2 1 2
Titles Won 53 N/A 0 1 9 10 10 2 0 1 5 3 2 1 3 4 2 0
Overall Win-Loss 595-122 N/A 5-3 33-8 54-6 74-6 70-5 17-2 0-0 11-1 47-8 45-13 46-13 38-13 58-13 40-10 47-14 10-7
Year End Ranking N/A N/A 86 6 2 1 1 8 - 1 2 5 6 6 4 10 7 60

NH = tournament not held

A = did not participate in the tournament

SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played
1 The Indian Wells tournament achieved Tier I status only in 1996.

WTA Tour career earnings

Year Majors WTA wins Total wins Earnings ($) Money list rank
1990 1 8 9 1,637,222 2
1991 3 7 10 2,422,206 1
1992 3 7 10 2,622,352 1
1993 1 1 2 437,588 16
1994 DNP
1995 0 1 1 397,010 16
1996 1 4 5 1,154,499 5
1997 0 3 3 914,020 5
1998 0 2 2 1,021,672 6
1999 0 1 1 744,741 8
2000 0 3 3 1,140,850 5
2001 0 4 4 627,211 15
2002 0 2 2 1,096,630 8
2003 0 0 0 276,213 38
Career 9 44 53 14,891,762 8

Trivia

Seles was the first female tennis player to win her first six Grand Slam singles finals: 1990 French Open, 1991 Australian Open, 1991 French Open, 1991 U.S. Open, 1992 Australian Open, and 1992 French Open.

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