Monica Seles Bio - Biography

Name Monica Seles
Height
Naionality Yugoslavia
Date of Birth December 2, 1973
Place of Birth Novi Sad, SFR Yugoslavia
Famous for
Monica Seles (Serbian: Моника Селеш, Monika Seleš; Hungarian: Szeles Mónika (pronounced /sɛlɛʃ/) was born in Novi Sad, SFR Yugoslavia (present-day, Serbia) to ethnic Hungarian parents.

Seles began playing tennis at the age of six, coached by her father, Károly Szeles. Her nickname was "Mala Mo" or "Little Mo".[citation needed] She won her first tournament at the age of nine, despite not fully understanding the scoring system of the game and having only a vague idea of whether she was leading or trailing her opponents during matches.[citation needed] In 1985 at the age of 11, she won the Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, and caught the attention of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. In 1986, the Seles family moved from SFR Yugoslavia to the United States, and Seles enrolled in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, where she trained for two years. In her early years, a famous[citation needed] singer Đorđe Balašević helped her by building a tennis court in his backyard where she could practice. She attended Sonja Marinkovic elementary school in Grbavica, Novi Sad.

Seles played her first professional tournament in 1988 at the age of 14. The following year, she joined the professional tour full-time and won her first career title at Houston in May 1989, where she beat Chris Evert in the final. A month later, Seles reached the semifinals in her first Grand Slam singles tournament at the French Open, where she lost to World No. 1 Steffi Graf, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 . Seles finished her first year on the tour ranked World No. 6.

Monica Seles Photos