She’s still got it and may not be finished yet (at 33)! Monica Seles has played a number of charity and exhibition matches this year, quietly testing a comeback. Two recent wins over Martina Navratilova have set fans into a frenzy. I’m one of these fans and was thrilled to see her play today at the Alta Bates Summit Celebrity Pro/Am Tennis Classic at the Berkeley Tennis Club. 
Relaxed, tan and toned, it was great to see her characteristic smile and blistering ground strokes. She’s still fast on her feet and manages to stun with perfectly and impossibly placed shots…I haven’t done this much fist pumping for quite a while! The grunt, however, is gone. When teased by the announcer, she just shook her blond ponytail and smiled. She's pictured here with her doubles partner for the day, Wendy Fix Shpiz. 
Corina Morariu was her equally charismatic opponent in a competitive set of doubles (pictured with partner Francesca La O'). Corina won doubles titles at both Wimbledon and the Australian before leaving the WTA Tour to battle a rare form of leukemia. 
She continues to play doubles on the WTA tour and raise money for cancer research. (Seles-Shpiz lost the tie-break.) Corina and Monica also played mixed doubles with local pros Mike Bauer and Morten Christensen (pictured). This energetic match in the hot sun ended in an 11-9 tie break (Morariu-Bauer). I stood behind the baseline and heard a few mini-grunts from Monica as it wore on. Maybe it's not gone after all! (-:
Her signature graciousness remains, as well. She still says 'please' and 'thank you' to the ball runners and patiently signed autographs between matches. Thanks, Monica, for continuing to inspire and hope to see much more of you!
Update: Thanks to the fans at www.monica-seles.com for the corrections. This is a fantastic site with active discussion boards & extremely knowledgable, passionate fans...check it out!! The event described was a charity fundraiser, so it was very low-key in terms of competition. Judging from their overheard conversations, none of the players had ever met, let alone played together. No rumors--many of the folks weren't tennis fans and I almost fainted when 2 teenagers said 'which ones are the pros'? AAGH! However, it was a unique opportunity to watch Monica play up close vs. something like the old Virginia Slims where it was usually an arena. I'd highly recommend looking for this event next year--$25 (including lunch) and a chance to get close enough to hear the on-court banter...priceless!
Nice article about Monica. Two little errors though. Monica has beaten Martina Navratilova twice recently, not Martina Hingis. And Monica is currently 33 years old, not 32. She'll turn 34 in December of this year (Dec. 2, 2007).
Thanks again for the article.
JOQ
Posted by: John O'Quinn | September 30, 2007 at 07:22 PM
How did Monica look...did she win her double match? Any rumors on whether she will announce she is gonna play in 2008?
Posted by: SamSeles | September 30, 2007 at 09:18 PM