Latest news with #Serbian-American
Gulf News
30-04-2025
- Sport
- Gulf News
Looking back: The day that changed Monica Seles' life — and women's tennis
Dubai: It was April 30, 1993. Monica Seles was at the peak of her powers, having dominated women's tennis for two years after becoming the youngest-ever French Open champion at the age of 16. But that day would change her life forever. The Serbian-American star, who held the world No 1 ranking in women's singles for 178 weeks, was the victim of an on-court attack during a match in Hamburg, Germany. An obsessed fan of Steffi Graf — Seles' great rival — stabbed her in the back with a boning knife during a changeover, plunging the blade between her shoulder blades to a depth of 0.5 inches (1.3cm). The incident left Seles traumatised both physically and mentally. She struggled with depression and eating disorders and did not return to professional tennis for more than two years. Although she made a comeback in 1995 and went on to win a ninth Grand Slam at the 1996 Australian Open, she was never quite the same. Her consistency waned, and she played her last professional match at the 2003 French Open. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Seles was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009. Seles had won her first Grand Slam singles title at the 1990 French Open, defeating world No. 1 Graf in the final. She saved four set points in a first-set tiebreak, which she won 8—6, and went on to take the match in straight sets. At just 16 years and six months, she became the youngest-ever French Open singles champion. She would win eight Grand Slam titles during her teenage years — a record in the Open Era. Between the 1990 French Open and the 1993 Australian Open, Seles captured eight of the 11 Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered. Her extraordinary run was abruptly halted by the attack that changed everything — for her, and for women's tennis. Seles was a baseline player known for her power-based, highly aggressive playing style. Her unconventional double-handed forehand and backhand — both struck flat — were delivered with relentless speed, depth, and precision. This ferocious groundstroke game allowed her to dictate rallies and overwhelm opponents, making her one of the most formidable players of her generation. Seles may have been denied her peak years, but she was never forgotten. Her courage, her power, and her teenage dominance continue to inspire — a symbol of both what was, and what might have been.
Daily Mail
28-04-2025
- Daily Mail
Shock twist in disappearance of Florida woman who vanished in Spain
A South Florida businessman accused of murdering his estranged wife in Spain has been found dead behind bars. David Knezevich, 37, had been in federal lockup ever since he was arrested at Miami International Airport in May 2024 for the death of Ana Maria Henao Knezevich, 40, one month prior. He was due to face trial in June on charges of kidnapping resulting in death, foreign domestic violence resulting in death and foreign murder of a United States national for Henao Knezevich's February 2, 2024 disappearance. But his lawyer announced on Monday that Knezevich died in custody, NBC Miami reports. 'The defense team was devastated to learn about it this morning,' Jayne Weintraub said in a brief statement. 'We trust that an appropriate investigation will be conducted.' No further details about Knezevich's death have been released, but his sudden passing comes just months after Henao Knezevich's family filed a wrongful death suit against him and his brother, according to the Miami Herald. Her family has previously claimed that the couple had been going through a messy divorce and were frequently arguing about how to divvy up millions of dollars in assets they accumulated during the 13-year marriage, CBS News previously reported. Amid the infighting, Henao Knezevich, a Colombian-American, moved to Spain. She was last seen on February 2, 2024 walking into her Madrid apartment where prosecutors say her husband showed up - and she was officially declared missing three days later when she failed to meet a friend to travel from Madrid to Barcelona for a conference. Following a lengthy investigation, authorities with the FBI and Spain's national police declared last May that Henao Knezevich was dead and that they had substantial evidence linking Knezevich to his wife's disappearance. Security-camera footage, for example, showed the Serbian-American IT specialist at a hardware store buying duct tape and spray paint with cash on the day she went missing. Hours later, a man in a motor cycle helmet was caught spray-painting the surveillance camera outside Henao Knezevich's apartment and leaving with a suitcase an hour later. The suspect used the same brand of spray paint that Knezevich allegedly bought from the hardware store, prosecutors noted. They also claimed that license plates that had recently been stolen in Madrid were spotted on a Pugeot identical to the one Knezevich rented - both near a motorcycle shop where an identical helmet was purchased and on Ana's street the night she vanished. When Knezevich later returned the vehicle to the rental agency, it had been driven 4,800 miles and was returned with tinted windows as well as two missing identifiable stickers. There was also evidence that the license plate had been removed and then put back. 'All these facts in combination reflect highly unusual behavior for someone with the means to fly from Serbia to Spain if he wanted to visit a hardware store in Madrid,' Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres declared. 'At a time he was supposed to be visiting his family in Serbia, he was blocks away from the apartment where his wife was last seen.' In August, the FBI joined Spanish and Italian authorities in the woods north of the city of Vicenza to search for her body after a GPS alert on Knezevich's rental car suggested he took a detour to the area on his way back to Serbia. However, authorities found no evidence of blood traces or signs of a struggle in the Madrid apartment after she vanished and her body has never been recovered. Prosecutors have also claimed that the morning after Ana disappeared, Knezevich texted a Columbian woman he met on a dating app to translate two English messages into 'perfect Colombian' Spanish. Once the woman translated the messages, they were sent to two of Ana's friends. The messages allegedly claimed she was going off with a man she met on the street - something they said she would never do. 'He was engaging in a scheme to make it look like the wife was alive and well, communicating with her friends about a man she just met,' Torres added. 'When in fact she was never to be seen again.' But Knezevich has maintained his innocence, and claimed he was in his native Serbia on the day his wife vanished. Federal agents, though, disputed that claim - saying he flew from Miami to Turkey and then to Serbia in January, where he rented the Pugeot to drive himself to Spain. If Knezevich were found guilty of the charges, he could have faced a life sentence. Meanwhile, he was also facing a wrongful death suit filed by Ana's family, which accused him of making fraudulent transfers, interfering with the family's rights to her body and intentionally causing emotional distress. Family attorney Adam Ingber also claimed in the suit, filed in February, that Knezevich's family unlawfully received Henao Knezevhich's share of the money and helped destroy evidence of her murder. 'We charged aiding and abetting against the... defendants for their roles in continuing the conspiracy after they discovered that they were part of a murder plot,' he said at the time. The lawyer added that he was also 'initiating legal proceedings in Serbia against his mother and cousin for helping to destroy evidence and for receiving Ana's money.'
