Monica Seles Retires

Tennis fans are this week reflecting on the premature retirement of the once great Monica Seles. The American who burst onto the scene in the early 1990's has finally called time on her professional career after five years of inactivity.

Bloggers have been reminiscing about her first few years on tour when her power game dominated the womens scene and have been asking to what extent did her stabbing by a insane fan in 1993 deny Seles a place in history.

"At the time Seles ruled the court she was tragically brought down to earth by a crazed Steffi Graf fan who climbed out of the stands and stabbed Seles in the back. This took place in Hamburg, Germany in April 1993. Seles had started the year well with an Australian Open title and would have been aiming for a fourth consecutive French Open. Who knows she may have even won Wimbledon to complete a career grand slam" said Tennis-Fantic.com.

Others including Savannah's World.Blogspot.com hail Seles as more than a terrific player, but also as a pioneer in the womens game. "We all remember the giggly screeching phenomenon who burst on the scene at the tender age of 15 with a game that revolutionized women's tennis and ushered in the Big Babe era in the women's game." Seles' style influenced the likes of the Williams sisters, Sharapova, Clijsters and so on.

But perhaps to the casual tennis follower Seles will be best remembered for her impressive on court grunting something which is still, to many peoples annoyance, part of the womens game today.

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From Centre Court to Crown Court

Tennis' governing body the ATP have claimed that they plan to tackle corruption in the game, in light of the match fixing allegations surrounding Nikolay Davydenko. The Russian, who is widely regarded as one of the better players on the tour, is suspected of fixing a game between himself and Martin Vassello last year.

The ATP have announced that an investigation will be conducted after the Davydenko-Vassello game in August 2007 was the subject of irregular betting patterns. "This incident raised the profile and made us all really look at this issue," ATP Chairman Etienne de Villiers told BBC Sport. He added that: "It raised the issue in the players' minds and galvanized the sport to move faster than we were moving."

The issue was pushed further up the agenda as a consequence of British no. 1 Andrew Murray's claim that "everyone knows" that match fixing is prominent on the tour. However, much like bungs in football, there appears to be little or no evidence to prosecute. Whilst the intentions of the ATP are admirable, the truth of the matter is that unless a senior figure on the tour puts their head above the parapet and comes forward with substantial evidence, then the investigation will have been an expensive waste of time.

Whilst most in the game accept that these types of underhand activities go on, it is virtually impossible to prove it.

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