Monica Seles: I'd hate to be next door to her on her wedding

The words of Peter Ustinov—“Monica Seles: I'd hate to be next door to her on her wedding night.”—are spoken in jest, yet they reveal the power of reputation and the way one’s habits echo beyond their chosen stage. Seles, famed for her ferocious tennis and her unmistakable grunts with every strike, became a symbol of unrestrained passion and force. Ustinov, with his sharp wit, takes this image and transplants it into the realm of marriage, crafting humor from the collision of public persona and private life.

This utterance speaks to the eternal truth that the qualities we display—our voices, our passions, our habits—become identities that others cannot help but carry into every image of us. Seles was not only a player of tennis, but an embodiment of intensity, of sound, of spirit that could not be silenced. Ustinov’s remark, though playful, underscores how the energy we show in one sphere of life becomes inseparable from how the world imagines us in all others.

History offers a parallel in the tale of Demosthenes, the great orator of Athens. His booming voice and relentless practice became legendary, so that even beyond the Assembly, people imagined him speaking with the same thunder in private life. In the same way, Seles’ athletic voice carried beyond the court, shaping her myth. Ustinov’s humor lies not in mockery, but in recognition of how greatness in one domain becomes inseparable from the whole of a person’s story.

The quote also reminds us of the human need for levity in speaking of the mighty. Seles, a champion who struck fear in opponents, is brought closer to the people through humor, through a jest that imagines her fire in the most intimate of human ceremonies—a wedding night. In this way, Ustinov diminishes none of her greatness, but rather celebrates it by showing how impossible it is to think of her without her hallmark intensity.

Let this wisdom endure: those who live with passion imprint themselves upon the imagination of the world. The qualities they embody in their art or labor cannot be confined but follow them into every tale told of them. As Peter Ustinov’s jest about Monica Seles shows, greatness is not only what one does, but the aura one creates—an aura so vivid it colors even the way others imagine your most private joys.