The Question About Monica : More Than Two Years After Stabbing, It Is Not Known When (or if) Seles Will Return to Tennis

Officially, Monica Seles is not here. Which does not rule out the possibility that she’s ensconced in some gilded Paris hotel, or prowling the shops in St.-Germain-des-Pres, wrapped in a disguise.

On the eve of the French Open, which a teen-aged Seles dominated with alarming ease, the third consecutive absence of one of the most compelling tennis players in a generation will be sharply felt. The center court at Roland Garros will not ring with her grunts, nor will the red clay dust stir with the velocity of her two-fisted strokes.

Gone from professional tennis for two years, Seles has become a recluse. Tracking Seles has never been a precise science, but it has been a futile exercise since she turned her back on a crowd at Hamburg, Germany, on April 30, 1993 and had a knife plunged into it. She has since turned her back on a sport that might miss her more than she misses it.

The attack caused her to miss the 1993 French Open, where she had won the last three titles. When she won here at age 16 in 1990, she became the youngest Grand Slam tournament winner in a century. It was the beginning of a frontal assault on tennis’ records.

In 1991, she fashioned the most dominant year in women’s tennis history. Then 17, she won three of four Grand Slam titles, reached 16 finals in 16 tries and won 10 tournaments, including the season-ending championship over Martina Navratilova. She also won a then-record $2.4 million in prize money.

At the time of her stabbing, Seles’ future--on and off the court--appeared to have no limit. Since joining the tour at 15, she wasn’t satisfied with merely making finals. She won. In her abbreviated career, Seles won 32 singles titles and seven of the eight Grand Slam events she entered.

It was a different age of women’s tennis, a time when the tour did not have today’s shallow talent pool. Seles dominated when other remarkable players were also at their peak. This was long before Navratilova spoke of retirement or Steffi Graf’s back began to disintegrate. She beat the best at their best.

Seles’ appeal was all the more broad because of her enigmatic personality. She presented a dual public face: a child’s squeaking grunt when she hit the ball, packing a brute’s strength. Coyly giggling through interviews, then imperiously sweeping out of a room swathed in designer clothes and guarded by her entourage. Seles kept a home in Sarasota, Fla., for focusing on tennis, and an apartment in Los Angeles so she could maintain a tiny slice of the life her non-professional peers were experiencing.

Seles and her oft-colored hair were an antidote to the earnest but dull players who populated the top 10. The tour never realized how much it needed her until she was gone. Now, the prospect of her return is discussed not so much in the context of how it might mesh with her needs but more what a tremendous boost it would give to women’s tennis.

The Question, in two years of uttering, has gone from “Is Monica coming back?” to the more hopeful version, “When is Monica coming back?”

Currently, the Question has as its underpinning the assumption that Seles, 21, is planning to return and is only waiting to decide the moment and place. Perhaps no one except Seles and those closest to her know her thoughts on the matter. She has seldom spoken publicly in a year and a half.

Earlier this week, however, she responded to a reporter’s questions relayed via fax to her from her agent. Seles’ brief, written answers revealed little of what might be going through her mind as the tournament she dearly loved begins.

“I’ve learned a little more about people,” she said, referring to the lessons she has gained since the stabbing. “I have always had a few close friends who have been behind me 100%, and they help me so much. They are there for me as a tennis player and as a person. It doesn’t matter to them if I am playing tennis.

“Of course, I’ve missed a lot of things during the course of the time I’ve been out. It’s not just about winning tournaments, but the excitement and the fans. I never played for the history of tennis, but for the joy of it. That’s how I would like my place in tennis history to be remembered.”

*

The facts of the stabbing are well chronicled. Guenter Parche, often identified as an unemployed lathe operator, in fact quit his job so that he could travel to tournaments to watch Graf, in whom he harbored an obsessive fixation.

Parche had lived for more than 20 years with his aunt in eastern Germany. The aunt would describe her nephew after the attack as having been a “quiet, reticent child. His best friend was the TV set.”

He appeared to spend his days in one-way correspondence with female sports figures. In addition to his obsession with Graf, which usually manifested itself with the sending of love letters, flowers and small gifts, Parche also sent threatening mail to German track and field star Heike Drechsler.

During his second trial, Parche admitted to planning an attack on Seles once he learned she had been given a wild card into the Hamburg tournament. He stalked Seles during the event; the family remembers meeting Parche at the players’ hotel and believing him to be a solicitous fan.

Parche was no fan of Seles. Parche had traveled to Hamburg with a nine-inch, green-handled serrated boning knife, which he intended to use to injure the top-ranked Seles, so that his beloved Graf, whom he called a “gift to humanity,” would be restored to No. 1.

Parche seized his opportunity during the quarterfinals. Seles was playing Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria, having won the first set and leading in the second. It was early evening at the Rothenbaum Tennis Club and few noticed as a stocky man in a plaid shirt and jeans made his way down an aisle toward the court. The players were sitting down during a changeover with their backs to the crowd.

As he reached a railing at the bottom of the stands, Parche removed the knife from a green plastic bag and, grasping the handle with both hands, leaned across the rail and plunged it into Seles’ back, entering just below the left shoulder blade. A spectator screamed just before the knife began its downward arc, causing Seles to wince and lean forward in her chair. Doctors say it might have been this reflex that placed Seles’ spinal cord out of harm’s way.

Seles recovered rapidly from the physical injury, but the mental anguish lingers. Nevada psychologist Jerry Russel May has been treating Seles for more than a year for post traumatic stress disorder. May and others have described Seles’ roller-coaster emotional state and a persistent anxiety stemming from the attack.

Seles has also suffered from a puzzling legal system that twice has convicted Parche of inflicting grievous bodily harm and twice allowed him to leave the courtroom a free man. A third appeal has been lodged, but the matter might not be pursued.

*

The attack exacerbated the Seles family’s already fanatical concern for security. Those close to the family say this preoccupation stems from an inbred distrust of institutions, including the police, that can be a feature of life in eastern Europe. Seles’ parents, in particular, have been described as “paranoid” about personal safety.

Whatever the source of her caution, Seles certainly exercised it. Like many well-known players, Seles checked into hotels under an assumed name. Unlike most, she tried to keep her travel arrangements from falling into patterns; she often made reservations on multiple airlines. Most players on the tour practice at the tournament site, often with other players, with the sessions frequently open to the public. Seles did not like for her practices to be seen.

The disguises Seles took to wearing may have been part of a teen-ager’s glamorous alter-ego, but they served a real function to hide and protect her.

Aside from whatever threat the family perceived, there had been tangible reasons for fear. Seles has received death threats before, including a bomb scare at Wimbledon. In such a context, the attack on Seles came as a horrifying, but almost expected, event.

Karolj Seles acknowledged the perception that his family’s eccentricities have been projected to his daughter.

“Monica didn’t like it that she was recognized,” he said. “Because she is private it has sometimes given her a bad reputation--that she is mystical and eccentric. That is not the case. She is just private. Very private. For sure, the family made [public relations] mistakes. We had no experience.”

So private is Seles that for all but a select few, it is not possible to speak to Monica. It is permissible to fax Monica and it is permissible to write to Monica, but there is no answering machine and, frequently, no answer.

Betsy Nagelsen speaks to Monica. Nagelsen, a former pro and current television commentator, is married to Mark McCormack, chairman of IMG, the management company that handles Seles.

For all of the convenient intersections the two have in their lives, the fact is that Seles and Nagelsen connect on a wholly different level. In Nagelsen, Seles has found a non-judgmental, kind and trustworthy friend. Known in tennis for her unfailing cheerfulness, Nagelsen may also bring a necessary lightness to the somber Seles household.

What may cement their friendship is the fact that Nagelsen has never asked Seles the Question.

“To be honest with you, I’ve never asked her if or when she’s coming back, not once, “ Nagelsen said. “I absolutely do not mention tennis to Monica. I’d like to see Monica resolve this and get a grip on her fears. I think she is. I think she absolutely loves competing. She loves to be on the tennis court. I’m not convinced she loves the spotlight. I know that’s an odd thing to say.”

Much about Seles is odd. Anne Person Worcester, the CEO of the Women’s Tennis Assn. Tour, made it her priority when she took the post several months ago to establish a line of communication with Seles, whom the tour understands is a valued former member.

Worcester gingerly addresses the issue.

“The lines of communication have been somewhat open,” she said. “They can be open further. It’s our priority to do everything possible to get her back on the tour if and when she decides to compete again. It’s a major, major priority.”

Karolj Seles said recently that his daughter, who became a U.S. citizen last year, wants to represent the United States in the Fed Cup and the 1996 Olympics.

Seles’ return to the tour would not be as simple as her declaration she intends to return. She has no ranking and, under current rules, Seles would be required to play qualifying matches to get into the main draw of tournaments. Of course, WTA officials would never let that happen.

Various scenarios have been devised that would allow Seles to return, unranked, but merge quickly into the mainstream. Even the grumpiest of players understand that some allowance must be made for Seles, who, after all, is not AWOL from the tour of her own volition.

But recent soundings indicate an impatience among her professional peers about Seles’ incommunicado status and vague plans.

Graf, who visited Seles in the hospital the day of the attack, showed some exasperation in March at the Lipton Championships when questioned about her attempts to contact Seles over the last two years.

Question: “Have you talked to Monica Seles at all in the last? . . .”

Answer: “No, I haven’t.”

Q: “Not since she went out?”

A: “I haven’t talked to her for about a year now.”

Q: “Do you have any intention of talking to her?

A: “If I could reach her, or can reach her, I would love to. But right now I don’t know how to do that.”

Q: “Would you try?”

A: “We have been trying, yes.”

Q: “What was the problem?”

A: “Well, if you can’t get through to a number, then you just don’t get through to a number. It has been difficult for a lot of people to get through.”

Some question Graf’s persistence in the matter, but other players say they also have failed to connect. Like the public, like tennis officials, they have been shut out.

Seles may need the comfort of her home and family more than the transient good will of players on the tour, but her need or desire to play tennis remains the most pressing question. Can her love of playing tennis ever allow her to turn her back on strangers again? How can she rebuild trust that had so little foothold to begin with?

And so the injury remains. The knife that missed Seles’ spinal cord appears to have punctured her most vital organ, her once-indomitable spirit.