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| from an article... Monica Seles wins Flo Hyman Memorial Award Washington, February 9, 2000 - Tennis champion Monica Seles will be honored today as the year 2000 recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's prestigious Flo Hyman Memorial Award. The Flo Hyman Memorial Award is the most prestigious award bestowed by the Women's Sports Foundation. It is presented to an outstanding female athlete who exemplifies Flo Hyman's dignity, spirit and commitment to excellence. Hyman, who was captain of the 1984 U.S. Olympic volleyball team, led her team to a gold medal and brought women's volleyball in the United States from virtual obscurity to worldwide recognition and respect. She died suddenly from Marfan Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder, while playing in Japan in 1986. Seles was the undisputed world champion in women's tennis in both 1991 and 1992. Currently ranked fourth on the Women's Tennis Association Tour, she has amassed 44 WTA singles titles, six WTA doubles titles and nine Grand Slam titles. In 1999, she reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, the semifinals of the Australian and French Opens and the finals of the Canadian Open. Seles is the second woman to win three consecutive French Open titles. She is a four-time winner of the Australian Open, a three-time winner of the French Open and twice won the US Open. In 1998, she became the fourth woman to earn over $10 million in career prize money. In November 1995, the Corel WTA Tour named Seles its Comeback Player of the Year. Her 6:0,6:1 victory over Amanda Coetzer at the Canadian Open that year broke the record for the least number of games played in a final. In 1992, the year she won three out of four Grand Slam events, Seles was a nominee for the Women's Sports Foundation's Professional Sportswoman of the Year Award. Born in Yugoslavia, she became a U.S. citizen in 1994. Previous winners of the Flo Hyman Memorial Award include Olympic speed skater Bonnie Blair, Olympic gold-medal gymnasts Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, tennis greates Chris Evert, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, swimming champion Donna de Varona, world disabled ski champion Diana Golden, basketball star Lynnette Woodard, track and field stars Evelyn Ashford and Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Hall of Fame golfers Nancy Lopez and Patty Sheehan. |
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