Seles Restores Order To The Court But Graf Stunned In Opener Putting Seles Rematch On Hold

She’s done Atlantic City, she’s done Letterman, and Tuesday night at the duMaurier Ltd. Open in scorching Toronto, Monica Seles finally abandoned the glitz for the grunts and got back to what she does better than anyone else.

She returned her competitive soul to the women’s tennis circuit and left a defeated opponent in her wake for the first time since she was stabbed in mid-match 28 months ago.

Prior to Seles’ official return, it was Steffi Graf who made history by losing to Amanda Coetzer, the 27thranked player, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).

After a first-round bye, Graf trudged into the match with little preparation. The loss ended Graf’s 32-match winning streak and marked the first time in 10 years she has lost her opening match in a regular WTA event. Before the match, Graf had never lost so much as a set to Coetzer, who is from South Africa.

Seles’ second coming was from the vantage point of her opponent across the net, very much reminiscent of the first: She took an unorthodox double-handed grip on her racquet and proceeded to whale away without restraint.

Seles needed just 1 hour to craft a declarative 6-0, 6-3 victory over 133rd-ranked Kimberly Po in the second round.

“It’s unbelievable; for a long time everything was dark, and now I see the sun,” said Seles. “It’s great to be playing tennis again.”

Judging by her defeat, Graf must have felt otherwise. She looked puzzled and, in contrast to her usual studiousness, even unconcerned.

But Graf’s memory lapse regarding the last shot was hardly surprising.

Her father has been jailed in Germany, accused of mishandling her tax affairs; her maternal grandmother is seriously ill; and Graf’s back continues to play painful tricks on her. That’s enough to incapacitate anyone’s powers of concentration on the tennis court.

And this was a most inhospitable tennis court, with the mercury bubbling in the thermometer at 113 degrees and the humidity planting tears on the faces of even the happiest competitor.

Her defeat left Seles, who was co-ranked and co-seeded No. 1, alone at the top.

Graf entered the match with her father, Peter, under house arrest on tax evasion charges, and her marathon against Coetzer was shrouded in a heat so crippling that the umpire invoked a rarely used rule and approved the South African’s request for a 10-minute breather after the second set.

But the heat was the least of Graf’s problems. Although she refused to name the source of her mistakes, she did admit that 24 unforced errors in a single set, the second, in which she fell into a 5-0 hole, were unthinkable.

And her total of 54 unforced errors seemed the inevitable result of doing too much thinking about things that had nothing to do with the match at hand.

“I never really felt positive during the whole match; I didn’t really find my game,” said the player who hadn’t experienced that problem in any of the 32 matches she had won this year.

“I don’t think it’s such a big setback, but it’s difficult to judge,” Graf said.

Graf actually hinted that she didn’t deserve to add this title to her impressive six-part collection of 1995 tournament victories that includes two Grand Slams, the French Open and Wimbledon.

“I cannot always expect not to practice and then to get into a tournament and win it,” said Graf, who felt underprepared for the French Open and Wimbledon because of injury problems.