Monica Seles was one of the most dominant tennis players in the world in the early 1990s, but her career and life changed dramatically after she was stabbed by a spectator during a match in 1993 and, more recently, after revealing she is living with a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease. She survived the attack, returned to tennis, won more titles, retired in the 2000s, and today remains active publicly while managing myasthenia gravis, a condition she has spoken about to raise awareness.

Key turning points in her life

  • In April 1993, at age 19 and ranked No. 1, Seles was stabbed in the back by a spectator during a match in Hamburg, Germany, an attack that forced her out of competition for more than two years and deeply affected her emotionally.
  • Before the attack, she had already won eight Grand Slam singles titles and was considered on pace to become one of the greatest players in tennis history.
  • The assailant was obsessed with her rival Steffi Graf; the incident led to intense debate about player security and the psychological toll on Seles, who has described needing years of therapy and coping mechanisms to deal with the trauma.

Her comeback and retirement

  • Seles returned to professional tennis at the 1995 US Open, reaching the final in a remarkably emotional comeback that showed she could still compete at the very top level.
  • She won her ninth and final Grand Slam singles title at the 1996 Australian Open, but by her own accounts she never quite felt like the same player, balancing lingering psychological effects and physical issues.
  • Her last official tour match was in 2003, and she later formally announced retirement, eventually being inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame as recognition of her extraordinary, interrupted career.

What happened to her recently

  • In 2025, Seles publicly revealed that she had been diagnosed several years earlier with myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease that causes muscle weakness and symptoms like double vision and fatigue.
  • She has said the diagnosis forced “another hard reset” in her life, comparing it to earlier turning points like emigrating as a teen, becoming No. 1, and surviving the stabbing, and she now talks about adapting day by day to changing symptoms.
  • Seles is working with an immunology company and awareness campaigns around the US Open to educate people about MG and has emphasized that she wishes someone in her position had spoken out when she was first dealing with the condition.

Life now and public image

  • Today, Seles is in her early 50s and remains a respected figure in tennis, mentoring young players, appearing at events, and following the sport closely, even as she manages her health challenges.
  • She often speaks about resilience, “resetting” after major life shocks, and adjusting like in a tennis match—telling younger people that the “ball is bouncing” and you have to keep adapting.
  • For many fans, she symbolizes both lost potential—what her career might have been without the attack—and remarkable strength in the face of violence, trauma, and chronic illness.

Forum and trending discussion angle

  • Online forums and podcasts still revisit the 1993 stabbing as one of the most shocking moments in sports history, comparing it to modern concerns about athlete safety and stalker behavior around stars.
  • Recent discussion spikes are tied to her MG revelation, with fans expressing sympathy, sharing stories of their own autoimmune conditions, and praising how candid she has been about both her physical and mental health journey.
  • Many threads frame the question “what happened to Monica Seles” as a mix of: the interrupted prime of a generational talent, the long shadow of trauma, and the way she has turned later hardship into advocacy and education about chronic illness.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.