Expect Seles To Perform Her Wizardry At ‘Oz Open’

In a more innocent time, Monica Seles curled up on a couch in a crowded airport lounge, awaiting an early morning flight home after winning a third straight Australian Open.

Children and adults intruded on her attempts to sleep, yet she patiently signed autographs, smiling as best she could, her eyes half-closed at times.

Finally, she covered her face with her floppy hat, let her long legs dangle over the edge of the couch, and tried to doze again. But a big, burly man wandered over, leaned down and tapped her shoulder, holding in his other hand a magazine with her photo. Seles lifted the soft brim of her hat, squinted, smiled and signed again. Before the plane took off, nearly everyone in the lounge had her autograph.

It was 1993, three months before the stabbing that would send her fearfully into retreat for 2-1/2 years. She had just played the finest tennis of her life, a 19-year-old coming into the fullness of her talent, getting better and better even after winning her eighth Grand Slam title.

“I felt that I found a balance between everything,” she says now of that time when her life seemed aglow and her promise limitless. “That was one of the best runs of my life right there.”

A love affair had grown between Seles and Australians. There were qualities about her - vivaciousness, quirkiness, a gritty spirit - that endeared her to fans at the “Oz Open” perhaps more than at any other major championship. And she, in turn, felt at home here.

Few foreigners have won over Australian fans the same way. Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, for all their victories here, never quite struck a chord as resonant with the Aussies as Seles did.

Andre Agassi captured that spirit in his title run last year, as did Pete Sampras for the way he fought through his tears, in an unforgettable match against Jim Courier, after learning that coach Tim Gullikson had been diagnosed with brain cancer.

Aussies went wild in the past over John McEnroe, who sometimes went wild himself, and they respected Stefan Edberg, who makes his last appearance here when the Australian Open starts Monday.

But the relationship between Seles and the Aussie fans is different. For one, they’ve never seen her lose a match in the mint green confines of the National Tennis Center. She came close only a few times. Down match point to Mary Joe Fernandez in the 1991 semis. Down a set to Jana Novotna in the final that year. Down a set again to Steffi Graf in the magnificent 1993 final.

Each time, Seles found ways to win. And each time, she spoke of how much she had to improve, how she had to learn to volley more, lob better, serve harder. Those self-deprecating comments endeared her to the fans as much as her dimpled smiles, the photos of her feeding kangaroos, her poses in floral gowns and floppy hats that made her seem, as one observer wrote, like Eliza Doolittle on her way to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.

The party is on again and Seles is back, ready to pick up where she left off, though some things are different. There’s the bodyguard who shadows her everywhere, on and off court. There’s the long layoff that will test her stamina once more, as it did in the U.S. Open last September when she wore down in the third set of the final against Graf.

There are the various ailments that have interrupted her full-time return to the tour: a knee injury, a sore ankle, a lingering virus.

All that aside, Seles could hardly be happier than to be back among friends in a country that has treated her so well. The rubberized hard court suits her game perfectly, and the riverside park next to the tennis center gives her a chance to get in some biking between matches.

She also won’t have Graf to contend with this time. The German is back home recovering from foot surgery and dealing with a tax investigation that has kept her father in jail for months.

“We played such a great match at the U.S. Open,” Seles said in expressing disappointment at Graf’s absence. “Whenever we are so close gamewise and we come together, it’s always a great challenge. Athletes love that.”

If Seles stays healthy, she figures to breeze through to the semis, where’s she’s likely to meet No. 3 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. In the bottom half of the draw are No. 2 Conchita Martinez and No. 4 Mary Pierce, the defending champion.

All those challengers won Grand Slam titles and made more money while Seles was sidelined. The time and the place seem right for Seles to assert herself once more and renew a special relationship with fans who have come to cheer her as one of their own.

Agassi, seeded No. 2, begins defense of his title against a qualifier, while Sampras, No. 1 in the world again after winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, opens against Australian Richard Fromberg.