What is Monica Seles Net Worth?
Monica Seles is a retired Yugoslav professional tennis player who has a net worth of $50 million. Monica Seles was at one time ranked number one in the world and was the youngest player to win the French Open at the age of 16. From there, she went on to win the Australian Open four times, the French Open three times, the US Open two times, and made it to the Finals at Wimbledon in 1992. She was the #1 female tennis player in the world in March of 1991 and retired in 2008.
In 2014, Monica married multi-billionaire Paychex founder Tom Golisano. Tom is 32 years her senior, and the two have been dating since 2009.
Career Earnings
During her career, Monica earned $15 million in prize money alone, roughly $25 million in today's dollars. She earned roughly the same amount from endorsement deals.
Early Life
Seles was born on December 2, 1973, in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), into an ethnic Hungarian family. Her parents are Ester and Karolj, and she has one older brother named Zoltan. Her father worked as a professional cartoonist for a couple of different newspapers. He began coaching Seles in tennis when she was five years old and often drew pictures for her to make the sport more enjoyable. When she was 11, she won the Junior Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, and caught the attention of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. Soon afterward, in 1986, Monica and her brother moved to the United States to enroll in Bollettieri's Tennis Academy. Her parents followed soon afterward.
Early Career
In 1988, at the age of 14, Seles played her first professional tournament as an amateur. She then turned professional in February of 1989 and won her first career title in Houston in May of that year. In June, she reached the semifinals of her first Grand Slam singles tournament at the French Open, only losing to current reigning champ, Steffi Graf. She finished her first year on the professional tour ranked sixth in the world.
The next year, she went on a 36-match winning streak, winning six consecutive tournaments, beginning in Miami at the Lipton Player's Championships. She then won her first Grand Slam singles title at the 1990 French Open, defeating number 1 ranked player Steffi Graf in the final. She became the youngest-ever French Open singles champion at the age of 16. She finished the year ranked second in the world.
Career Peak
In 1991, Seles became even more dominant. She started by winning the Australian Open in January and defending her French Open title, securing the number 1 world ranking. She was unable to play in Wimbledon due to shin splints and took a six-week break before playing in the US Open, where she won her third Grand Slam title of the year. By the end of the year, she had won 10 of the 16 tournaments she had entered.
The year 1992 was equally successful for Seles. She defended her titles at the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open. She also reached the final at Wimbledon before losing to Graf. She finished the year ranked number one again.
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Attack
Heading into 1993, Seles was the top-ranked player. She started the season by winning the Australian Open again, as well as the Virginia Slims of Chicago. However, in April of 1993, while she was playing a match against Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg, Germany, Seles was stabbed by an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf. The fan, Gunter Parche, ran onto the court during a break in the game and stabbed Seles between the shoulder blades. She was rushed to the hospital. While her physical injuries healed within a few weeks, Seles did not return to competitive tennis for over two years. The incident prompted a significant increase in security at tennis tour events, though Seles has stated she noticed no difference and also vowed not to play tennis in Germany again, given that her attacker only served six months in pre-trial detention for the crime.
Later Career
As a result of the attack, Seles suffered from depression as well as a binge eating disorder. After time away from tennis, she decided to return to the tour in August of 1995 after becoming a U.S. citizen in 1994. She won her first comeback tournament, the Canadian Open, and almost won the U.S. Open before being defeated by Graf in the final. She went on to win the Australian Open that year, which would be her last Grand Slam title. However, she did consistently reach the quarter and semifinals in the Grand Slam tournaments and remained a competitive player with a high world ranking through her last full year on the tour in 2002.
In the spring of 2003, Seles sustained a foot injury and was forced to withdraw at the Italian Open. After losing in straight sets at the 2003 French Open, she never played an official tour match again. After playing in a few exhibition matches in 2005 and considering a comeback, Seles ultimately decided to announce her official retirement from professional tennis in February of 2008. In January 2009, she was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame and is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Personal Life
Seles became a naturalized American citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June of 2007. She released her memoir, "Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind, MySelf," in 2009. The book details her struggles with depression and a binge eating disorder, as well as various family problems and her life outside of tennis. In 2015, Seles began working as a spokesperson for Shire Pharmaceuticals, which released the first drug approved to treat binge eating disorder.
Seles began dating Tom Golisano, a businessman who is 32 years her senior, in 2009. They announced their engagement in 2014 and then got married.
