Seles Won’t Face Attacker

Monica Seles asked a court for a stronger penalty against the man who stabbed her in the back during a tennis match almost two years ago and “destroyed my life.”

In a letter read at the retrial of Gunther Parche, Seles said her convicted attacker deserved more than the suspended two-year sentence originally imposed.

“I want proper justice,” Seles said in the letter. “The attack tremendously and irreparably changed my life and stopped my tennis career.”

Seles had won eight Grand Slam titles and was ranked No. 1 in the world when she was attacked during a changeover on April 30, 1993. She has not played competitive tennis since.

“I was a 19-year-old girl when he tried to kill me,” she said. “He didn’t succeed but he destroyed my life.”

In the letter, read to the court by attorney Gerhard Strate, Seles also said that she would not come to testify at the trial.