By Charles Bricker

"That was a harsh lesson in the business side of tennis . . . it really is about making money over everything else."

There is a great deal in this wonderful autobiography of Monica Seles that nestles into a warm, safe place in your memory bank, but these words, which first occurred to her less than 48 hours since her career was diminished by a deranged attacker in Hamburg, Germany, is probably going to stay with me a long time.

"The tournament was still going on as if nothing happened?" she thought to herself as Steffi Graf came to visit her at the hospital. "I'd been in a bubble of pain and shock for two days and I'd lost track of time, but I'd assumed the tournament would have been cancelled. The organizers thought differently."

"Monica Seles: Getting A Grip On My Body, My MInd, My Self" hits the bookstores on Tuesday and, if you either love tennis, love this fabulous woman, or both, you'll finish the 281 pages before you nod off.

This is the first time Monica has spoken with any detail and with real gut emotion about the events of April 30, 1993, when, as she sat in her changeover chair, she was stabbed in the back with a 10-inch knife. How close she came to being paralyzed.

She was ahead of Maggie Maleeva 6-4, 4-3 when she leaned forward to take a sip of water. "It's strange," she wrote, "how the tiniest thing can have the most tremendous impact on your life. Doctors later told me that if I hadn't bent forward at that precise second, there was a good chance I would have been paralyzed. The cup had barely touched my lips when I felt a horrible pain in my back. Reflexively, my head whipped around toward where it hurt and I saw a man wearing a baseball cap and a vicious sneer across his face. His arms were raised above his head and his hands were clutching a long knife. He started to lunge at me again. I didn't understand what was happening and for a few seconds I sat frozen in my chair as two people tackled him to the ground."

One can only imagine the freeze frames that will forever remain with Seles. She recovered fairly quickly from the knife wound, but it would take her two years to recover enough emotionally to return to tennis. It was wonderful to have her back, but, clearly, she was not at the same level. She would win just one more major, struggle with other, tennis-related injuries and play her last match in 2003.

She has been guided through to this point in her life (she's only 34) by her faith and by the faith of those around her and, while she was a very, very private person for a long time, she really opens up herself in this book.

The days immediately after the stabbing were, of course, the worst -- including having the police bringing plastic bags of evidence to the hospital for her to identify. "Is this the knife the attacker used?" she was asked. "There were streaks of dried blood down the sides of the blade. I nodded quickly and stared at a spot on the wall as they packed up my shirt and the knife and left the room. As soon as the door closed, I grabbed a plastic bowl and threw up into it. I dry-heaved until my stomach muscles ached."

Yes, this is the worst part of Seles' life, but in a way the most significant. She was 19 years old and had already won eight Grand Slam singles titles -- at least one at each of the four majors except for Wimbledon. How many could she have won? If this horrific event had not taken place, would she have retired perhaps just a year or two ago with as many as 20? How good could she have been against the Williams sisters? Remember: She already had surpassed Graf. Had things been different, we could be sitting here talking about her as the greatest player in the history of women's tennis.

As emotionally grabbing as the Hamburg chapter is, most of the book is filled with joy. Of her growing up in Yugoslavia . . . of her first junior wins, as young as 9 . . . of her love of her father, who died of cancer . . . of her grand days at the Bollettieri Academy, and I suspect Nick will be weeping a bit as he reads this autobiography . . . and the exhilaration of reaching No. 1 in the world and dominating tennis at such a young age.

I last saw Monica late in 2008 at a party in Bradenton to celebrate Nick Bollettieri's 30 years in coaching. We talked about her past reluctance to come to New York for the U.S. Open, where the USTA could give her the sort of tribute that it once gave Pete Sampras. Certainly Seles has done as much for women's tennis as Pete did for men's.

She said she was ready. The past was not forgotten, but it was the past, and she would deal with it in her forthcoming book. Yes, she said, that would be nice -- one more chance to say thank you to the fans she calls the best in the world.

It's up to the USTA now to deliver. And it's up to you to read this book.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@tennisnews.com