Nine-time Grand Slam singles champion Monica Seles was named as 2009 inductee to the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Thursday.

Other indcutees joining Seles for entry ceremonies on July 11 at an ATP event will be 1960s Spanish player Andres Gimeno, pioneer marketer Donald Dell, who helped launch the careers of black players Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, and the late Robert Johnson, a junior player developer.

Seles, 35, sat atop the WTA rankings for a total of 178 weeks and won the 1991 and 1992 US Opens, the 1990-1992 French Opens and the 1991-1993 and 1996 Australian Opens.

Her 15-year career was interrupted in dramatic circumstances when she was stabbed in the back by a fanatical supporter of rival Steffi Graf during a 1993 match at Hamburg.

It would be 27 months before Seles would return to competitive tennis. She won her comeback event at the Canadian Open, reached the US Open final and then captured her final Slam crown at the 1996 Australian Open.

She won 53 singles titles and more than 14 million dollars in prize money. Seles, the 2000 Olympic bronze medalist, was the youngest champion in French Open history at 16 1/2 years.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2009)