"There are clearly symptoms you can't ignore," Seles reveals she has a rare autoimmune disease

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Adrien Guyot

le 13/08/2025 à 09h52

1 min to read

Seles

Tennis legend Monica Seles won nine Grand Slam titles in her career. Even though it took a tragic turn in 1993 when she was stabbed in the back in Hamburg, the former world No. 1, now 51, left her mark on the sport.

Retired since 2003, the former player, who became a U.S. citizen in 1994, has been battling a rare autoimmune disease for the past three years that affects the neuromuscular junction—myasthenia gravis.

"I was playing with kids or family members and missing balls. I’d think, 'I’m seeing two balls.' There are clearly symptoms you can't ignore.

It took me a long time to accept it, to talk about it publicly, because it’s hard. It affects me every day. In life, I’ve had to completely reset myself multiple times.

When I came to the U.S. at 13, I didn’t speak the language, I’d left my family. That was a very tough time. Then, of course, becoming a top player is another reset, because fame, money, attention—it all changes, and it’s hard to handle at 16.

Then, of course, after the knife attack, I had to make a huge reset. And now, the myasthenia gravis diagnosis—it’s another new beginning. But as I tell the kids I coach: 'You always have to adapt.

The ball bounces, and you just have to adjust.' That’s what I’m doing now," she said in an interview with *L’Équipe* in recent hours.