![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Monica-Seles-Health-Tennis-0_1755096592820_1755096608782.jpg\" "\\"FILE")
FILE – International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Monica Seles waves to the crowd as she holds her plaque during ceremonies in Newport, R.I., July 11, 2009. (AP Photo\/Elise Amendola, file)(AP) <\/p>\nMonica Seles, nine-time grand slam champion and one of the greatest tennis players of all time, revealed that she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called myasthenia gravis. The former Serbian-American world number one explained that she has been struggling against this disease over the last five years, and decided to speak out about it in a bid for awareness.<\/p>\n
FILE – International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Monica Seles waves to the crowd as she holds her plaque during ceremonies in Newport, R.I., July 11, 2009. (AP Photo\/Elise Amendola, file)(AP) <\/p>\n
In an interview with the Associated Press, Seles explained how the signs were slow to come at first, but slowly grew to a level where it could not be avoided.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be playing [tennis] with some kids or family members, and I would miss a ball. I was like, \u2018Yeah, I see two balls.\u2019 These are obviously symptoms that you can\u2019t ignore,\u201d explained Seles.<\/p>\n
The former star, who won eight of her nine slam titles as a teenager, revealed it required her to build up the courage to speak up about it as she battled with the implications of the disease: \u201cIt took me quite some time to really absorb it, speak openly about it, because it\u2019s a difficult one. It affects my day-to-day life quite a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
As per NHS.co.uk, myasthenia gravis is a \u201ca rare long-term condition that causes muscle weakness. It most commonly affects the muscles that control the eyes and eyelids, facial expressions, chewing, swallowing and speaking. But it can affect most parts of the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now 51 years old, Seles explained that she realised the significance of someone with her profile speaking up about such a situation, which prompted her decision to take her diagnosis public. \u201cWhen I got diagnosed, I was like, \u2018What?!\u2019 So this is where \u2014 I can\u2019t emphasise enough \u2014 I wish I had somebody like me speak up about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Then obviously my stabbing\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
This is the latest in a career that has been full of setbacks for Seles: after her incredible start to her career which saw her well on the way to being the greatest tennis star in history, she was infamously stabbed in the upper back during a match in Hamburg as a 19-year-old, after which she was only able to add one more grand slam to her tally.<\/p>\n
Seles reflected on how those experiences had helped her resolve herself against this diagnosis, and made it just the next occasion on which she had to roll with the punches and remember how to \u2018adjust\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very tough time. Then, obviously, becoming a great player, it\u2019s a reset, too, because the fame, money, the attention, changes (everything), and it\u2019s hard as a 16-year-old to deal with all that. Then obviously my stabbing \u2014 I had to do a huge reset,\u201d explained the tennis great. \u201cAnd then, really, being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis: another reset.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut one thing, as I tell kids that I mentor: \u2018You\u2019ve got to always adjust. That ball is bouncing, and you\u2019ve just got to adjust.\u2019 And that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing now,\u201d concluded Seles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monica Seles, nine-time grand slam champion and one of the greatest tennis players of all time, revealed that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[36457,56343,54586,54840,99,428,37212],"class_list":{"0":"post-80163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-autoimmune-disease","9":"tag-grand-slam-champion","10":"tag-monica-seles","11":"tag-myasthenia-gravis","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-tennis-players"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}