Taking drugs, shoplifting and stabbed on centre court… as Wimbledon returns, we look at the dark days of tennis
ON the court they were the ultimate champions – but behind their smiles and success, some of Wimbledon’s past female stars have suffered tragedies and scandals.
As the championship gets underway in SW19, we look back at the sport’s darkest moments.
Attacked with a knife by a deranged fan
After officially turning pro in 1989, Monica Seles was ranked number one in the world, winning an incredible nine Grand Slam tournaments.
In 1993, the Serbian teen faced her first Wimbledon final against rival Steffi Graf.
During the match, she was attacked on court in front of terrified fans by deranged Graf fan Gunter Parche, who stabbed her in the neck with a nine inch knife.
While she miraculously suffered only minor physical injuries, the budding star was left traumatised by the event.
Doctors told her if the blade had hit her just one centimetre to the left she would have been paralysed for life.
She was unable to play tennis for three years and went on to develop depression and binge eating disorder – which saw her balloon from a size 8 to a size 18 – as a result.
Though she enjoyed some success after rejoining the tour in 1995, her performance was nothing like it had been in her teenage years.
She retired in 2008 after a five-year hiatus.
While Monica can talk about the stabbing now, she does not like to dwell on it too much.
She told the Guardian: “It takes me back to a very dark place in my life.”
Shoplifting and rehab
Jennifer Capriati rose to fame at a very young age, appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 13 after making waves in the tennis world.
She competed as a Wimbledon semi-finalist against Gabriela Sabatini in 1991 at just 15.
But her success came at a price, with the star later rebelling against her strict upbringing when she was arrested for shoplifting and cannabis possession.
She eventually dropped out of all her tournaments and went to rehab for drug use.
She later said she’d struggled with body image issues when playing tennis as a teen – and even considered suicide.
She said: “When I looked in the mirror I actually saw this distorted image.
“I was so ugly and fat I just wanted to kill myself really. At the end of a match I couldn’t wait to get off court.”
In 2013, Capriati was charged with battery and stalking after reportedly following and striking former boyfriend Ivan Brennan on Valentine’s Day, but the charges were later dropped.
Now, Jennifer lives a quiet life and spends most of her time at home in a luxury block of flats in Miami.
Cocaine scandal and affairs
In her 23-year professional tennis career, Swiss Martina Hingis won 25 Grand Slam championships.
But her career suffered a temporary setback in 2007, when traces of cocaine were found in her bloodstream and she was given a two-year suspension.
“I have tested positive but I have never taken drugs and I feel 100 per cent innocent,” she said in an emotional interview at the time.
She retired from professional tennis as a result.
Martina went on to marry French equestrian Thibault Hutin in 2010.
But just three years later, Hutin claimed Martina was a serial adulterer, saying he walked in on his wife with another man a year after their wedding – and that after he forgave her she cheated on him again.
He said: “Martina has a very personal conception of morality.
“She has always been like that; I think she has always been unfaithful to her boyfriends.”
In 2018, Martina announced she’d married former sports physician Harald Leemann after a year of dating, and they welcomed their first child, a daughter, earlier this year.
‘Verbally abusive’ father
German prodigy Steffi won 22 Grand Slam titles and had a string of high-profile sponsorship deals with the likes of Adidas and Dunlop – but she too had her fair share of issues.
Her father and coach, Peter Graf, who died aged 75 in 2013, was accused of verbally abusing officials and mismanaging her fortune.
Graf was nicknamed “Papa Merciless” for driving Steffi to succeed from a such young age.
In 1997, Graf was convicted of failing to pay $7.3 million in taxes on his daughter’s earnings and attempting to evade another $1.8 million through a tangled scheme of shell companies and tax havens. The pair feel out when he was jailed for 25 months in prison.
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Steffi, 49, has been married to former tennis player Andre Agassi since 2001, and the pair have two children.