Steffi had shown us that in her Wimbledon 88 & 89 finals against a 2 and 3 years younger Martina. And she did it again in 92 in the Wimbledon 92 final when she destroyed Seles with 62 61. Seles never came even close to that high level!

In 1991 Seles had a 74-6 win/loss record. Which was the worst win/loss record for a #1 player since Evert in 1982. And she even went 0-2 win/loss against the then #2 player, Steffi Graf.

@@carrerau7138 Every time someone says something good about Seles you reply with a really annoying pro-Graf shade on Monica. Seles was quite amazing before she got stabbed because she was so young and had won so many slams already and that fact has nothing to do with Graf and takes nothing away from Graf's achievements. Grafanatics are so annoying!

it's moronic

She gained so much weight because of her bulimia. That was the problem. The groundxstrokes were as good as ever, but the quickness and the endurance were not there.

Fat tends to take away athleticism.

In what, you sad clown?

She'd have still lost

@@gedshepherd3106 Yep and Monica is to my mind one of the top 3 women players to have played the game.

@@gedshepherd3106 Maybe - worth noting that Martina had won their last match on hardcourts earlier that year 6-2, 7-6 and would also go on to win their next match on hard courts 6-4, 6-2. But whatever the result, it should have been a much closer, more entertaining match than it was. A lot of their matches were really electric with some amazing tennis, no matter who won. We were really robbed of that. After such amazing semi finals, this was a massive anti-climax.

Both coming from marathon semis just the day before. Keep in mind Martina played the first semi in taking out Steffi, and even tho it went three sets, the points were short. Monica's famous match against Capriati had rallies lasting over 30 strokes, finished just before dark. She only had about 18 hours to recover. But when you're 17 (Monica) vs. 35 (Martina), who do you think had an easier time recovering ?

Martina didn't play badly, Monica was just too good.

It's very likely.

@@jansnauwaert1785 Agreed.

for sure. She was a killer.

I don't think Steffi really cares. Tennis is a very long way behind her and she's not very interested in getting involved. She has her family now.

oh yes. Graf would never have won as much as she did had Seles been there in full force.

That is your opinion. I would not agree with it.

I agree. The deranged German got what he wanted and wasn't even punished. It was beautiful to see Graf and Seles play against each other. I think Stefi would have continued to take Wimbledon and Monica the other 3 Grand Slams for 3 or 4 more years until Hingis arrived. Monica would had 16 or 17 Slams and Stefi maybe 14 or 15. Or maybe even. Watching Henin and Seles play is glorious. What Serena did in her 30s was unbelievable.

I agree 100 %!Monica was blessed to be the greatest champ ever,but it didn't happen...Neverthless players like Seles,Navratilova,Borg,Connors will never be forgotten!!!

@@mikebatlinh6650 smh dude, you ain't got a clue. Really smh. He said that's what Navratilova said and you think you know better than her. Oh dude.🤣🤣🤣🤣

@Wally Friend - Thanks for sharing what Martina said. . I totally agree with her. Younger people have no idea how good Salas was. She won 8 Majors before she was 20 years old. Think about that. Then the stabbing occurs and she was never the same after that. No way Graf would have had 22 Majors if they would have been able to continue their great rivalry. Monica would have won many more.

7-13

@@juanantoniobl7550 incorrect 7-10 as Michael J originally sent!

@@camgig9995 But two of those wins by Martina came when Monica was 15, and one only two months after she turned 16. Martina's level of play , even at 34, was still very close to her prime. Monica is only 17 in this match, still improving.

The points were a much quicker pace and hugely energy draining in the Navratilova Graf match - a series of very intense sprints. The match went over 2 hours. Also, Martina had also tough three setters in the fourth round against Manuela Maleeva (who'd beaten Martina the year before) and then against Arantxa Sanchez Viacrio in the quarter finals, who came within 2 points of winning after two long tiebreak sets in the first two sets. Monica had much the easier path to the final and as you rightly say, much harder for the older Navratilova to recover.

They both had tough semifinal matches. Monica’s match with Jennifer was definitely the more mentally and physically draining of the two though. They were both teenage phenoms with so much to prove even off the court. Steffi and Martina had been doing this for years, so it was quite routine for them. 35 really isn’t that old, and Martina was in great shape. Honestly, I’m surprised Monica was able to come out on this day and be at the top of her game after her truly epic semifinal. Challenging for both women though to be sure.

@@Ricky-mo6mv in the era where most top athletes retired at late 20s/early 30s, 35 was really old. Her contemporaries by this point were retired or shadow of themselves.

so true; I think about that every time I watch one of these videos featuring Monica

she won 8 by the age of 18

She won her 8th title in Australia in 1993, at the age of 19 years, one month, but still...it was amazing @@archangelmusic13

The sad thing is that we'll never know. There were a lot of things though counting against Monica achieving that, and it's possible that her career may have tailed off like Martina Hingis's did. Firstly, Monica's dad's illness massively affected her, I think more than the stabbing. That would have happened in any event. Secondly, Monica has talked at length in her books about how even before the stabbing she was having real problems coping with the stress of the tour. She said her eating disorder started many years earlier when she was still at the Bollettieri academy as a means to cope with the loneliness of it all. As early as 1991 a lot of commentary was made about her weight and she said that she was 'addicted to butter'. The next factor is illness and injury. Monica was always somewhat fragile and it's possible that the injuries that drove her out of the game may have started earlier. If we look at the 12 months leading up to the stabbing, there were some signs that all was not 100% well. Monica had a title drought from June 1992 to September 1992. A period of 14 weeks that was the longest title drought for any world #1 since Martina Navratilova had lost the #1 ranking in 1987. In early 1993, Monica took what was then the longest ever absence from the tour for a world #1, not playing from February 1993 until late April 1993. Hamburg was her first tournament back. The result of all that was that in the 12 months leading up to the stabbing, Monica won 7 tournaments (of course three of them grand slams) whereas Steffi had won 9 plus the Fed Cup. It's the main reason why Steffi got the #1 ranking back so quickly - she was very close to Monica in the rankings anyway. Finally, there's just no way that any player can keep going years after year winning so many slams. Each player who's had a run like Monica did has then had a big dip. We've seen it with Steffi, Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Serena. You name it. I suspect Monica would have had a similar dip, and by the time she got out of it she would have been facing a new generation of incredibly tough players in the later 1990s (all of whom she ended up with a losing head to head with) such as Hingis, Davenport, and the Williams Sisters. I just cannot see her dominating the tour against all those players like she did in the early 90s.

@@th8257 nobody is reading all of that.counting her losses to inferior players after the stabbing like losing to sanchez vicario, a player she dominated before the stabbing only proves seles wasnt the same player when she came back.and not an indication of what she would have done if she hadnt been stabbed.the fact sanchez could beat serena on clay says it all about how monica would have been a much better player to beat them had she not been stabbed.

When Seles was in her prime in 1991-93 she lost FOUR times against a 34/37-year-old Navratilova, the best S&V player ever. 😂 Can you imagine what Martina of 1982-89 would have done with Monica??

Good thing tennis isnt a beauty pagent.

I’m sure seles is very hurt that you hate her style of play.

@@theroadrunnerjarhead4109 Haha!

Certain people love ugliness. Says a lot about them.