Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 5632x7680 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

Tennis star Seles stabbed by spectator
Man seized
by fans
after attack
BERLIN: Tennis star Monica
Seles will be sidelined for four
weeks after being stabbed with a
kitchen knife on court at a Ham
burg stadium.
A 38-year-old German man
leaned over a barrier and
rammed a knife into Seles's back
at the Citizen Cup tournament on
Friday. Seles, 19, the world No 1
woman player, suffered a wound
about 1cm to 2cm deep between
the shoulders.
Spectators helped seize Seles's
attacker immediately after the in
cident, and police were expected
to charge him late yesterday.
In a television interview on the
ARD network after the attack,
Hamburg police spokesman
Dankmar Lundt said the assail
ant had said he was a Steffi Graf
fan.
"He didn't want to kill Seles,
only injure her to hinder her from
playing," Mr Lundt said.
Steffi Graf was one of the first
to visit Seles in hospital yester
day. Seles was reported to be still
"very distressed", although the
wound was not serious.
At the time Seles was stabbed,
there were no police officers in
side the Rothenbaum stadium.
The German sports news agency
SID quoted tournament director
Guenter Sanders as saying four
private security men in plain
clothes had been sitting behind
the players.
Death threats
Mr Lundt said the attacker had
been identified as an eastern Ger
man from Thuringia state. His
name had not been issued last night.
"There were no political
grounds,'' Mr Lundt said. The man
had appeared confused and might
have been mentally disturbed.
There was immediate speculation
the attack on the Yugoslav star
might have been motivated by the
warfare among her homeland's eth
nic groups, but police said they had
ruled out political motives.
However, Seles has been receiv
ing death threats in connection with
the Yugoslav political situation for
some years.
She is an ethnic Hungarian from
Serbia and lists her country as Yu
goslavia, but she has lived in the
United States since 1986.
^Questions have already been
raised about whether gates and
fences should be erected at stadiums
to protect tennis players.
"We hope that it doesn't get as
bad as the extremes, like the condi
tions in soccer stadiums," the ARD
television network said.
Monica Seles is given help after being stabbed while playing at the Rothenbaum stadium in Hamburg. Help
Monica Seles is given help after being stabbed while playing at the Rothenbaum stadium in Hamburg.
Spectators at the Citizen Cup match seize the tennis star's assailant after the attack. ap photos Help
Spectators at the Citizen Cup match seize the tennis star's assailant after the attack. ap photos
Security to
be tighter
MELBOURNE: Tennis officials
will tighten security at the Austra
lian Open at the National Tennis
Centre in Melbourne because of the
stabbing of Monica Seles.
Tennis Australia president Geoff
Pollard said yesterday that he was
shocked and disgusted by the at
tack.
"We would hope and expect that
this is just an isolated incident," he
said. "The good news is that it is
not serious. It could have been a lot
worse."
Mr Pollard said security at the
Melbourne tennis centre would be
reviewed but he emphasised that the
design of the complex provided ex
cellent protection for the players.
"We will review the security," he
said. "We've got nine months [be
fore the Open] to see what happens
with other tournaments around the
world.
"We do have security arrange
ments. There is an outside security
company there 24 hours a day 365
days of the year and there is extra
security for the Open."
$