When tennis lost its innocence

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On Friday, April 30, 1993, tennis lost its innocence. In the quarterfinals of the tournament in Rothenbaum in Hamburg, the best seeded Monica Seles will meet Magdalena Maleewa. Seles leads 6:4, 4:3 when she is attacked by Günter Parche with a 22-centimeter kitchen knife and stabbed in the back.

The mentally disturbed Parche will later explain that he is a big fan of Seles’ opponent Steffi Graf and that he therefore wanted to sideline Seles for a few weeks.

After this traumatic day, nothing is the same for Seles. She will never return to Germany and will hardly speak publicly about the murder. The statements in this story are therefore taken from her biography “Get up again and again – my game comes back to life”.

Parche himself had never commented on the crime, except in court. On Friday it was announced that he died in a nursing home in East Germany at the age of 68 last August. «During his stay at the house, he was always inconspicuous, took part in leisure activities: afternoons at the cinema, doing crafts and reading the newspaper. There he lived in a single room. He had spent the last four weeks before his death lying in bed until one night he finally fell asleep peacefully. He had previously received palliative care,” Bild writes.

Blick spoke to several people who witnessed the murder and its aftermath 30 years ago. It soon becomes clear in the conversations: the events, even though they are now far in the past, have not left her to this day.

“Actually, everything was already decided. Monica Seles was in the lead, but because the light was so nice, I stayed to take a few more shots of her as we switched sides. I sat right in front of her. Suddenly I saw something behind her. Because I was looking through the camera, I only saw part of it. That’s why at first I didn’t understand what had just happened. There were no digital cameras back then. So I couldn’t just look at what I had just photographed.

When the doctors took care of Seles, at some point I stopped taking pictures because it was all too much for me. Then I went to the lab to develop the films. After a good hour of waiting, I saw that I had actually photographed the moment the assassin stabbed her. And also the moment when the folder trapped the perpetrator and possibly saved her life.

I can still remember that moment in the lab to this day. I felt my heartbeat in my throat. At the same time, I wondered if I was partly to blame. Should I have yelled to warn Seles? Today I know that I couldn’t have done anything else because everything happened so fast and no one could have expected anything like this.

Since I was the only photographer who had these pictures, everyone wanted something from me afterwards. I never thought you could make so much money with a photo. I want to keep to myself how much I actually received, but the photos saved my life. Because a good year later I got testicular cancer and I was in the hospital for almost a year.

Since I had only been self-employed for three years at the time and therefore could not yet invest any money, I did not have to worry financially at least thanks to Seles’ photos. This has certainly contributed to my health recovery.”

Thorsten Baering (61), who deliberately lives in Hamburg, still works as a freelance photographer.

“When I saw what had happened, I immediately ran onto the field. At the same time I called the ambulance. Seles had a pained face and clung to a folder. My main concern was that the assassin had injured her lungs, because that would have been life-threatening.

I had two choices. First: treating her for 10,000 people. Or second, bench them and chase them out of the arena. I then chose the second option because I found out relatively quickly that the injuries were not life-threatening and that the lungs were not affected.

On the way to Eppendorf University Hospital, my main task was to calm her down. Seles was extremely agitated and upset. In summary, you could say: the physical injuries were minimal, but the mental injuries were maximal. I then handed over Seles to the doctors at the hospital and explained to Seles’s parents how their daughter was doing.

As I left the hospital, the first reporters came up to me and put out their microphones. Police barriers, federal border guards and journalists everywhere – I had never seen anything like it. Apparently all hell broke loose outside in the few minutes I was inside. It was only then that I really realized the full scope of the incident.”

Dr Peter Wind (71) was a tournament doctor at Rothenbaum for 25 years.

“I was stabbed. On that spot. In front of 10,000 spectators. What no one dares to ask, but everyone wants to know, is whether it hurt. Yes, it hurt a lot. It was a worse pain than I could have ever imagined. As I hugged my brother’s hand in the ambulance, the shock kept me from realizing my world was falling apart.

April 30 was a sunny day. In the break before the half change I was leading 6:4, 4:3. I leaned forward to take a drink of water. I barely had the cup in my mouth when I felt an excruciating pain in my back. Instinctively, I turned my head in the direction of the pain and saw a man in a baseball cap with a wicked grin on his face. His arms were raised above his head, his hands clutching a long knife, and he was about to stab me again. I didn’t understand what just happened.

I got up and staggered a few steps before falling into the arms of a stranger. I heard people calling for help and an ambulance. Although I was in shock, I can still remember a thought popping into my head: Why?

The hospital was teeming with police officers and doctors. It was a mess. Two days after the murder, Steffi Graf visited me in the hospital. We were only able to talk for a few minutes before she had to go to the finals. I was appalled. The tournament went on as if nothing had happened? That was a hard lesson in the tennis world. Actually, it’s all about the money.

After Steffi left, a policewoman and a policeman entered my room with some plastic bags. “We have evidence for you to identify,” says the policeman. I didn’t want to see evidence of the scene. I couldn’t talk. And so I just stared at the policewoman as she opened one of the bags and pulled out my white-pink Fila shirt I’d been wearing in the square. It was torn and stained with blood. I would have loved to throw up right away.

The officer opened a second bag and took out a long, serrated knife. I knew this knife. It hovered over my head the last time I saw it. My mouth filled with spit and I swallowed hard to keep from gagging.

The policeman pointed, “Is that the knife the killer used?” he asked. Dried blood clung to the blade. I nodded quickly and stared at a spot on the wall as the cops repacked my shirt and knife and left the room. As soon as the door closed behind them, I grabbed the plastic bowl by my bed and vomited. I choked until my abs hurt.”

American Monica Seles (49), born in Yugoslavia, won 9 Grand Slam tournaments and was number 1 in the world for 178 weeks.

«During my career as a journalist I supervised numerous trials, but the one against the Seles killer Günter Parche was a special one. The media attention from all over the world was enormous. Many portrayed him as a monster, but in reality he was a stunted little man, a pathetic wimp who had done something crazy out of love.

Parche was someone who had nothing beautiful in his life. Who was afraid of strangers. Who lived with his aunt and never had a wife. I can still remember a statement that he liked the food at home best. Even Italian food scared him. And before the appeal procedure in Hamburg, he voluntarily preferred to spend the night in prison rather than in a hotel, because he already knew that from his time in pre-trial detention.

For Parche, Steffi Graf was like the mother of God. Pure, clean, honest, beautiful. He adored her. And saved the money to pay for a video recorder in the GDR. He used it to record programs with her, which he could then absorb day and night. He also sent money to Graf over and over again. When a necklace was stolen from her, he sent her 300 German marks so that she, the millionaire, could buy a new one.

When it came to the appeals process, he took down all the Graf pictures he had hung in his room, put them in a case and put them in the attic. He was afraid he would go to prison and in the meantime his room could be renovated and someone would throw away all those little pictures.

Parche was eventually sentenced to two years of probation. It was a scandal for many. The ‹Bild› wrote at the time: ‹Judges confused!› But if you look at the facts, the verdict was actually too high. He just gave Seles a slice, a centimeter prick. It wasn’t life threatening and it was clear he didn’t mean to kill her. He just wanted Seles out of circulation for a few weeks so his Steffi could be number 1 in the world again.”

Gisela Friedrichsen (77) was the German court reporter for decades.

Source : Blick

Emma

I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.