HAMBURG, Germany -- A judge on Monday rejected a request to jail the man convicted of stabbing tennis star Monica Seles.


G--nter Parche was given a suspended sentence in October 1993 after he was found guilty of causing grievous bodily injury in the April 1993 attack. Seles, 21, has not played professional tennis since the stabbing.


Prosecutors and Seles' attorney had asked Judge Gertraut G?ring to change the charge against Parche to attempted manslaughter and sentence him to prison.


On April 30, 1993, Parche stabbed Seles in the back during a changeover in a match in Hamburg. Parche said he wanted his idol, German tennis player Steffi Graf, to again become No. 1 in the world.


G?ring said testimony from Seles herself would have been needed to convict Parche on a more serious charge. The former tennis star did not attend the original trial or the appeal hearing.


"We assume that Parche's act is the reason that Seles is not able to play tennis anymore, but this can't be said with certainty because Ms. Seles was not willing to testify in court," the judge said.


Seles, in a letter to the court, said Parche's attack had "destroyed my life."


The judge accepted testimony by police officers and psychiatrists who said that, aside from his fixation on Graf, Parche was harmless.


"The evaluations were both positive. Both experts expect that he will never be moved to do something like that again," the judge said. "We can't rule out that he meant to do more than he did to Ms. Seles, but we also can't prove this."


The judge said Parche's confession and his written letter of apology to Seles counted to his credit. Homicide detective Rolf Bauer, head of the investigation, said, "It was obvious to us all that the man belonged with a doctor and not in jail."