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INTERNATIONAL TENNIS HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCEMENT

January 15, 2009

KAT ANDERSON: Hi, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us today for the International Tennis Hall of Fame Class of 2009 announcement. To get things underway here, it is my pleasure to introduce the chairman of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum, Christopher Clouser. Chris.
CHRISTOPHER CLOUSER: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, all around the world, whether it be morning, afternoon or evening. Thank you for joining us. It is my honor as the chairman to announce the names of the inductees for the 2009 induction weekend induction class.
After I announce the names, I'll be calling on Hall of Famer and Hall of Fame president Tony Trabert who also chairs the induction committee, selection committee, and Mark Stenning, the CEO of the tennis Hall of Fame, to talk briefly about the induction weekend which is held in Newport in July.
It is my honor to announce the names of the newly elected members to the International Tennis Hall of Fame:
Leading the induction class of 2009 is nine-time Grand Slam singles champion, former world No. 1 player, very well-known, well-liked and admired champion, Ms. Monica Seles.
Additional inductees into the Hall of Fame is one of Spain's most prominent tennis players, French Open champion of 1972, and a dominant player of the 1960s, Mr. Andres Gimeno, who has been selected in the master player category.
In addition, being elected in the master player category is Donald L. Dell, an industry pioneer, leader in sports marketing, professional sports management and sports television, founder of ProServe. He was also Davis Cup captain, Davis Cup player, No. 4 singles player in the world.
Last, but by no means least, selected for induction is the late Dr. Robert 'Whirlwind' Johnson, founder and director of the American Tennis Association Junior Development Program, who worked tirelessly for decades assisting in the development of young African American tennis players while helping to break the barriers of racial segregation. He's also very well-known as one of the coaches of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe.
It is our great pleasure to welcome the newest members into the International Tennis Hall of Fame to honor them for their brilliant careers and significant achievements in the sport of tennis. It is absolutely one of the finest and most exciting and respected classes ever inducted into International Tennis Hall of Fame, which will happen in July.
It takes a lot of work, effort, study and commitment to serve on the 21-member committee of the selection committee. It's very ably chaired by the president of the Hall of Fame, and Hall of Famer, Tony Trabert. Tony, I'd like you to comment at this time.
TONY TRABERT: Chris, thanks very much. My thanks also to all of you for joining us on this conference call.
I've been asked to sort of tell you briefly how we operate. We have a committee of five who screen applicants, those that are presented to the Hall of Fame. We decide whether they are Hall of Fame worthy or not. If they are, they are put in a book that we have, the three categories, recent player, master player and contributor. Each year at Wimbledon, the committee meets. We are 21 on that committee, a very international group. At that point we decide on who's going to go on the ballot in, again, those three categories. We can put as many as three per category on the ballot. We don't always do that, however. Then the voting takes place and is finalized on the 15th of December.
CHRISTOPHER CLOUSER: Thank you, Tony.
In addition to our inductees, we have a special ceremony which will take place in Newport in July. One of the all-time great champions of the game of tennis, Rocket Rod Laver, will be in Newport for the Hall of Fame induction weekend July 10th through 12th. The Hall of Fame will honor Rod, naming him a Hall of Fame life trustee, and will celebrate with him the 40th anniversary of Rod's second Greer Grand Slam triumph. Laver, who was inducted into the tennis Hall of Fame in 1981, is the only player in the history of tennis to capture two career Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969, as many of you know. We're pleased to have a special award and presentation to Rod in Newport this summer.
I'd like to call on Mark Stenning, the CEO of the Tennis Hall of Fame, to talk briefly about that induction program.
MARK STENNING: Thank you, Chris. Just want to open up by echoing Chris and Tony in welcoming the newest members into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. With the addition of these new members, we'll have 211 tennis champions representing 18 different countries here in Newport.
The Hall of Fame's Class of 2009 induction ceremony is slated for Saturday, July 11th, on Bill Talbert Center Court during the final weekend of our Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Champions, which is a tournament on the ATP World Tour. Very excited about this as the public is. Tickets are going very quickly, obviously as a result of this stellar class, particularly Monica Seles' involvement. Thank you.
CHRISTOPHER CLOUSER: Thank you. We have a special guest on the phone. The special guest is about to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. She held the world No. 1 ranking for 178 weeks, and has nine Grand Slam titles. The list goes on and on and on. She's just a terrific person. All of us involved in the Hall of Fame are very excited about Monica Seles being inducted.
So, Monica, thank you for joining us. Do you want to say hello?
MONICA SELES: Thank you, Christopher, very much for that. I just want to say I'm so excited, so honored to be inducted alongside Andres Gimeno, Donald Dell and also Dr. Robert Johnson. It took me a long time to get into the Tennis Hall of Fame, but what an honor it is. What a way for me to remember the amazing tennis career that I had. Also I think hopefully I can inspire young girls around the world that if they dream big enough and work hard at it, that dreams do come true, like in my case.
CHRISTOPHER CLOUSER: Thank you very much. We'll go ahead and take questions now.

Q. You're going back to the court this year at the Hall of Fame. You were there this past July with an induction. Can you talk a little bit about being on the other side, on the receiving end of this great celebration.
MONICA SELES: Definitely. I mean, being asked by Betsy last year to introduce her was very special, just because of my relationship with Mr. McCormack. I've never been to the Tennis Hall of Fame before. The good old days, this is going to really date me, when there was a ladies tournament there, which hopefully one day there will be another ladies tournament there, I never got a chance to play. So it was my first time there.
I was just blown away by the history, by the beauty, by the elegance of the place. At the same time I was so glad that I got to see it before being inducted because I was extremely nervous last year inducting Mr. McCormack. I can just imagine how nervous I will be being the inductee this year myself.
It's just one of those things that as a little kid, when you start playing tennis, when you pick up the racquet, you never imagine where that racquet is going to take you. For me, at age 35, when my tennis career is behind me, I can't really even put in words what it means. It's just something that you look back and all the hard work, the sacrifices I had to do, my family had to do for me to be there, it was all worth it.

Q. You said your tennis career is behind you. What are you doing now?
MONICA SELES: I'm doing a few different things. One of the things that you probably will be reading that I'm doing, I'm coming out a book. It's called Getting a Grip on My Body, My Mind and Myself. It's my journey from tennis, obviously my fame, the tragedy, my self-discovery. And I think a lot about that's geared towards women, too, about weight. I mean, I've lost a lot of weight since I stopped playing tennis, which is a big irony because in tennis you exercise so much. That has really occupied a lot of the past year because I wrote the book, it took up a lot of time.
The other is I work with kids, preschoolers, on fitness. That's one of my pet peeves, because kids nowadays are just more sedentary and overweight. That's one of the things I love.
Also with tennis I have a lot of other commitments. Last year unfortunately I didn't play any exhibitions because of my foot, but I still done special events. Also done internships at architecture firms, and photography, because those two things are my passion. As you can tell, a lot of different things.
I'm also on the board of two charities, the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation and the Institute for Civic Leadership. I'm really trying to take time also a little bit my family and some of my friends because for 18 years tennis took priority over everything. That has been really one of the nice changes. Just simple things, maybe not traveling as much as when I played, enjoying my pets, being able to go to a 10:00 movie, which when I played I couldn't because I would be practicing next day always like at 8, so it would be too late.

Q. Looking back, what do you think the greatest match that you played was in your career?
MONICA SELES: I think for me, I have to have like two or three. The first one that comes to mind is definitely my French Open win against Steffi in 1990, because it was my first Grand Slam. As a 16-year-old, everybody says, She's going to be great, blah, blah, blah. But till you actually do it, you really don't believe it.
The second one was probably my finals when I lost to Steffi at the 1995 US Open, because it was really my first Grand Slam coming back after not playing for two and a half years.
Probably the best match that I ever played, obviously I love to remember matches that I played well, was in 1992, the Championships at Madison Square Garden, season-ending, against Martina Navratilova. I think that was the best tennis I played throughout my career, that match.

Q. Your late father is considered one of the most giving and thoughtful of the major tennis parents around. Up in heaven, what do you think he would think about this day?
MONICA SELES: I'm know I'm going to get very emotional when I will talk about him in July. But really without him, I would have never nurtured my tennis. He and my brother were the first to really introduce me to the sport. But without my dad's love for the game and really just making it fun, he never made it for me like it was something I had to do. It was just something fun.
I think that's what helped me stay in the game so long and also I think to keep my sanity. Really, I mean, I know my tennis career, a huge portion, if not all of the portion, goes to my dad. My mom and brother in the background, but without their support also. When you see a top player out on the center court, you see just that person, but there is a lot of people behind who took them to that, really to those heights. In my case, it was really my family, and really my father deserves the biggest credit.

Q. Ted Tinling once said when you were emerging, Monica is a normal person, the first one we've had in years. Do you view yourself as a normal person and yet your saga is so extraordinary?
MONICA SELES: I would probably say I was a normal person in some extraordinary circumstances. At 16 when I came and I won my Grand Slam, I became No. 1, and as a teenager I battled also my own - how would you call it - rebellion a little bit. I wanted independence, so I maybe expressed it in different ways. Yet alone, it was on a world stage. If I cut my hair short, it was big news.
I think I had to grow up in an unusual circumstance. Then at 19, to get stabbed on a tennis court also was very unusual. Never happened before, never happened since. It totally changed the course of my tennis career. Coming back to tennis at 21 also was a big decision for me to do, then a year later losing my father. It was just a lot of highs and a lot of lows.
But one thing that always kept me going really was that I loved the game. Whenever I talk to young kids out there today, you've got to love the game. I think kids now, they're so preoccupied by the endorsements or by the fame. But if you don't love the game, I just think in the long run it's just not worth it. That for me really kept me through the good times and bad times. I simply loved playing tennis at the tennis court at my house as much as at the French Open or Centre Court.

Q. You said in your book one of the most important things, you talked about self-discovery. What would you say is the most important thing over this entire career you've learned about yourself?
MONICA SELES: Oh, gosh, it's a lot. I mean, just really from starting, leaving my home at a very early age, really up rooting my entire life, and at 14 becoming a professional. You definitely didn't lead a normal life. I think giving up something for that, yet on the other end, getting so many great things, whether that be the fame, the financial freedom, being well-known, all those things, the tragedies, my stabbing, my father. Really, end of the day, just discovering who Monica is. All these things that happened in my life were outside of my hands, but they had a huge impact on my life, how I felt inside.
I think during my last three, four years of my tennis-playing days, you could definitely see that in my weight. I look back at pictures, I can tell you I was so unhappy. Even though I got to the semis or finals, I was jut not a happy person inside. And for me really after I stopped playing tennis, I needed to just give time to Monica and figure out what I wanted and who I was.
I think that was one of the hardest things I had to do 'cause I had to deal with things I really didn't want to. One of the things that my dad always said, put one foot in front of you, but at the end of the day just remember how fragile life was. I think for me, after I stopped playing tennis, suddenly I'm injured, I didn't know if I'd ever play really again, which unfortunately I never really got a chance to play. My weight was very high. I wasn't in the happiest place, let's put it that way.

Q. You came a long way from your home in what was Yugoslavia to train in the United States. That does not seem to be the case on the women's pro tour any more. Fewer and fewer American women are having success, other than the Williams. If this were back then, do you think you would have come to the United States to train? Do you think that's part of the problem with U.S. tennis now?
MONICA SELES: Before I moved to the U.S. I lived in Germany and Italy. Really for the last two and a half years before moving to the U.S. to the academy, I lived at other places because of the conditions back then in my home country of the former Yugoslavia.
To me, when I did a clinic last year, what summed up why U.S. tennis is really struggling, is that this kid comes up to me, must have been like 10 or 11 years old, and he says to me, My parents told me you were one of the hardest-working players on the tour. How many hours did you practice? I said, Well, five, six hours. He said, I practice just that much on the Wii. The gentleman with me rolled his eyes. I'm thinking, A Wii? So I'm smiling, blah, blah, blah. We go on. Do you know what the Wii is? Kids use this thing? It's a computer that imitates like you're playing a real match. This guy is playing five, six hours on this thing and he thinks this is the real thing? I mean, just little things like that.
You know, that's why you see so many other players, we had the Russian invasion, the Serbian invasion. I know at the academy they have a couple girls that are supposed to be really good that the U.S. will have some players because right now, once Serena and Venus decide to retire, it just doesn't look that good at the moment.

Q. I know you've been talking very matter of factly about the stabbing. Are you past the point now where you can tell yourself or ask yourself what if it didn't interrupt your career? Do you actually still think of that?
MONICA SELES: You know, I mean, I thought of that probably the day after my stabbing. It comes and goes. I mean, there are days that I think about it and there are days that I don't think about it. Obviously now that I'm not playing, I don't think about it because there's really nothing that brings back that memory. But it's one of the those things that unfortunately changed the career of mine, and definitely Steffi's career, too, but in totally different ways.
At the same time, at some point, especially when I decided to come back, I had to realize that that was out of my control and now it's up to me to take control. That's when I decided to play and really return to the sport that I loved. I didn't want it to be taken away.
What could have been, nobody knows. What could have been if I didn't pick up a tennis racquet when he was seven years old? I try not to ask myself those questions because there are really no answers to it.

Q. Can you talk about maybe one thing, whether it was meeting a celebrity or going to a certain place in the world, something that was just so fantastic that you never would have been able to do if tennis had not led you there?
MONICA SELES: Well, I think one of the first things I do have to say was meeting Sir Rod Laver in 2005. I never met him before, which is really strange when you think about it. That was one of the things I just had to like pinch myself. Oh, my God, that's him in the president's lounge at the US Open. That to me, as a tennis player, was definitely one.
I think non-tennis would have to be probably meeting Nelson Mandela. He would have been had to have been my highlight. From that, going to certain events. If I never played tennis and obviously never reached the level I had done, it would have been a very different story. So there's so many great things that tennis has given me, from going to certain parts of the world I never would have gotten to see, cultures. So I'm so thankful for that.

Q. How did you meet Nelson Mandela?
MONICA SELES: I'm on the board of the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation. We were on a project visit in South Africa, in Johannesburg. That's how that came about.

Q. Do you remember what year that was?
MONICA SELES: That was in 2006, November.
CHRISTOPHER CLOUSER: I want to thank everybody for your interest in the Hall of Fame, Monica, our new inductees.
MONICA SELES: See you in July.
CHRISTOPHER CLOUSER: See you July 10th. Thank you all very much and have a great day.

End of FastScripts

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