Tennis great Monica Seles, fighting an incurable disease, speaks candidly about ongoing battle
Tennis legend Monica Seles, 52, has come forward about her 2022 diagnosis of myasthenia gravis, a chronic and incurable neuromuscular autoimmune disease.
The condition, which causes muscle weakness and fatigue, resulted in symptoms including double vision and leg weakness — especially while playing tennis, forcing her to adjust her daily life and fitness routine.
Seles, who won 53 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including nine majors — eight as a teenager while representing Yugoslavia and the final one while representing the United States — has publicly shared her battle with the disease as a way to raise awareness.
Then, in a candid conversation with Flow Space, “Seles opened up about her recent diagnosis with MG, a condition that has transformed the way she approaches daily life.
But just as she did in her athletic prime, she’s facing each challenge with grit, grace and curiosity, tapping into the same inner resilience that once helped her bounce back from an unthinkable on-court attack.”
While there is no known cure for MG, Seles focuses on managing the condition through a positive mindset, medication, lifestyle adjustments and maintaining a healthy everyday life.
The disease affects the connection between nerves and muscles, causing unpredictable, “up in the air” fluctuations in energy and physical ability.
According to a story on dailymail.co, the tennis Hall of Famer has overcome multiple obstacles throughout her life, including being stabbed by a crazed fan during a tennis match.
The incident occurred in 1993, when at age 19, she was attacked while playing in Germany.
“While playing the quarter final match in a tournament in Hamburg against Magdalena Maleeva, Guenter Parche, an unemployed German man, stabbed Seles in the back.
He plunged a nine-inch serrated boning knife one-and-a-half inches into Seles’ upper back, just millimeters away from her spine,” the story went on to explain.
More on the disease
Three years after discovering she had the disease, Seles told the Associated Press that it took her “quite some time to really absorb it, speak openly about it, because it’s a difficult one. It affects my day-to-day life quite a lot.”
Seles also noted in a story on parade.com that she does what she can to care for her mental health.
And back in November she shared how important it is to embrace small joys as the seasons change and the sun goes in earlier.
