This Day in History: 1993-04-30

Top-ranked women’s tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a match in Hamburg, Germany, by a man who described himself as a fan of second-ranked German player Steffi Graf. The man, convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, was given a suspended sentence, which was later upheld by a second judge. The judge claimed that testimony from Seles would have been needed to convict the man on a more serious charge, despite the facts that she was clearly traumatised, did not know her attacked, and the assault was video-recorded and hte man apprehended immediately. The judge accepted testimony by police officers and psychiatrists who said that, aside from his fixation on Graf, the man who stabbed her was harmless. The attacker had also expressed racism against Serbs (Seles is from a Serbian area of Yugoslavia).