Here are the top 3 Roland Garros moments in the Open Era

3. Monica Seles’ victory turned disaster and what that could’ve been

Seles was a force to be reckoned with in the early 1990s. At 16 years old, she captured her first of three straight French Open titles. By 1993, she had captured 7 of the previous 9 major championships as of April. She was emerging as the next WTA great and was consistently beating World #1 Steffi Graf. The two faced each other in 4 Grand Slam finals. Seles won 3 of them and had finally taken the #1 ranking from Graf. At 19 years old, she was a seven-time Grand Slam champion and World #1. It was her time to shine over Graf and the rest of the tour.

The clay-court superstar was a victim of something that should never be in sports. A deranged German man stabbed Seles at the Citizen Cup, a Roland Garros tuneup event. During a water break, the fan reached over the fence and attacked the teen star and plunged the knife an inch into her back.

It was a tragic event in tennis and ended up ruining Seles’ career. She was out of tennis for more than 2 years due to post-traumatic stress and was never the same after returning to professional play. It’s purely speculative what Seles’ career would’ve been like without the tragic incident. It’s likely she would’ve retired as one of the greatest players to ever step on the court. The young star could’ve gone from young clay-court star to tennis legend.