Legend adapts to new challenges

For several years, one of the great tennis champions of the modern era has existed as a kind of ghost.

- Matthew Futterman

NEW YORK -

Monica Seles won nine Grand Slam titles, eight of them before her 20th birthday. With her two-handed groundstrokes from both sides and her ability to paint lines from anywhere, she defined the term "phenom." She spent 91 consecutive weeks at No. 1, playing 34 tournaments in that time. She reached the final in 33 of them.

In April 1993, Seles and Steffi Graf were dueling for supremacy at the top of the sport when a fan fixated on Graf stabbed Seles at an event in Germany. She came back from over two years of physical and mental turmoil and promptly won another Grand Slam title, even as the place where she displayed her tennis skills no longer felt safe.

Seles, in a word, reset, while carrying the weight of what had happened. She retired from tennis in 2008, continuing to play exhibitions alongside other luminaries, including John McEnroe and Chris Evert. She played regularly, mentoring younger players.

But since 2019, Seles, 51, who was born in Yugoslavia, has largely disappeared from public view. Around that year, she started experiencing double vision and extreme weakness in her arms and legs. She would see two balls coming at her on the tennis court instead of one.