Monica Seles (b. 1973)
Filed under the name Monica · April 1, 2026
Monica Seles won nine Grand Slam singles titles and is rightly enshrined in the Tennis Hall of Fame, and I will say that tennis is one of the very few sports about which I can speak with any real authority, having played it since childhood on courts considerably more forgiving than the ones on which she actually competed for a living. There is a particular grit to a career built on nine major titles that has nothing to do with the leisurely weekend matches of my own experience — that number represents years of relentless, professional-grade discipline, the kind my standing weekly appointment with a terrifying personal trainer only faintly approximates. I am aware, and try to remain aware, of how differently the word 'discipline' functions in a life like mine versus a life spent actually competing at that level for one's livelihood. Nine Grand Slams is not a hobby's achievement. It is the record of someone who treated the sport as the entire, serious center of a working life, and it shows.