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Tennis Hall of Famer Monica Seles is opening up about her Myasthenia Gravis diagnosis
Seles, a nine-time major tennis champion, said adjusting to life with the disease has been “difficult”
Seles is partnering with a Dutch immunology company to raise awareness about the neuromuscular disease
Monica Seles is opening up about a neuromuscular disease diagnosis that has impacted her daily life “quite a lot” in recent years.
The International Tennis Hall of Famer, 51, revealed to the Associated Press that she was diagnosed three years ago with myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular autoimmune disease that causes a person’s muscles to feel weak and quickly grow tired.
In addition to muscle weakness, according to the Mayo Clinic, myasthenia gravis can cause a person to have double vision and drooping eyelids. It can also cause problems speaking, breathing, swallowing and chewing. There is no cure for the disease.
The retired Serbian-American women’s tennis star told the AP she began noticing symptoms of the disease while playing tennis with her family and began seeing multiple balls coming toward her.
“I would be playing with some kids or family members, and I would miss a ball. I was like, ‘Yeah, I see two balls.’ These are obviously symptoms that you can’t ignore,” Seles said.
“And, for me, this is when this journey started. And it took me quite some time to really absorb it, speak openly about it, because it’s a difficult one,” she continued. “It affects my day-to-day life quite a lot.”
Seles told the outlet that routine daily tasks like doing her hair “became very difficult” to manage. The nine-time grand slam tennis champion told the AP she had never heard of the disease before she was diagnosed, inspiring her to speak up about it now ahead of the U.S. Open, which begins next week.
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Monica Seles
“When I got diagnosed, I was like, ‘What?!’” Seles recalled. “So this is where — I can’t emphasize enough — I wish I had somebody like me speak up about it.”
Seles is partnering with a Dutch immunology company as a primary spokesperson for its “Go for Greater” campaign to help those living with myasthenia gravis find resources to help them manage their life with the disease.
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The tennis great told the AP that her diagnosis has led her to go through yet another “hard reset” in her life, equating the experience to some of her biggest career hurdles.
Seles won eight grand slam titles as a teenager and was widely regarded to be on her way to becoming one of the most accomplished tennis stars in history when she was stabbed by a fan on the court during a match in 1993, after which she stepped away from tennis for two years.
She returned to tennis in 1995 and won one more major championship, her ninth overall, before retiring for good in 2003.
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Monica Seles
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“I call my first hard reset when I came to the U.S. as a young 13-year-old [from Yugoslavia]. Didn’t speak the language [and] left my family,” Seles told the AP.
She added, “It’s a very tough time. Then, obviously, becoming a great player, it’s a reset, too, because the fame, money, the attention, changes [everything], and it’s hard as a 16-year-old to deal with all that. Then obviously my stabbing — I had to do a huge reset.”
“And then, really, being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis: another reset,” she said. “But one thing, as I tell kids that I mentor: ‘You’ve got to always adjust. That ball is bouncing, and you’ve just got to adjust.’ And that’s what I’m doing now.”
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