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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wimbledon Opens With Graf Lame Top-Seeded Sampras Begins Quest For His Fourth Men’s Championship

Steve Wilstein Associated Press

Suddenly gimpy and screaming in frustration Sunday on the eve of Wimbledon, Steffi Graf stopped looking like a sure bet to retain her title.

For 30 minutes in practice, Graf played as smartly and swiftly as she had in winning Wimbledon six times. But then the left kneecap she injured a week ago began acting up, and Graf limped through the rest of the hour-long workout, shouting as she sprayed shots outside the lines.

Graf’s injury, sustained in an exhibition, led her to pull out of the tune-up tournament at Eastbourne. She returned to Germany for daily treatment of the swollen tendon before coming to Wimbledon over the weekend.

She seemed to have her mind more on soccer than tennis midway through Sunday’s practice as she called out to a friend to ask the score of the Germany-Croatia match in Euro ‘96 - the biggest sporting event in England this week. Told that Germany was closing out a 2-1 victory to reach the semifinals, Graf looked happier than she had all day.

Graf was denied her request to postpone her opening match until Wednesday. No one tampers with tradition at Wimbledon, not even a top-seeded woman who’s won 19 Grand Slam titles and is favored to win her 20th by the end of the fortnight.

Pete Sampras, three-time defending men’s champion, will open play on Centre Court, as tradition dictates, at 2 p.m. today against Richey Reneberg. Graf, like all women’s champions before her, will play her first match on Centre Court at 2 p.m. Tuesday, taking on Ludmila Richterova.

Graf is hardly the only player hurting. Sore-shouldered Monica Seles, the No. 2 seed, plays her first match at Wimbledon in four years today against Ann Grossman. For all Seles’ complaints about pain when she serves or her lack of fitness because of numerous injuries, she’s coming into the tournament fresh from her first grass court title at Eastbourne.

“I never really felt I had a chance to get in form, to put in the amount of hours that I want to practice because I kept getting injured,” said Seles, who lost the 1992 Wimbledon final against Graf.

“I feel pain all the time. I wake up every day and it hurts, but this is a special year and special circumstances.”

Despite the pain, she played well enough to crush Mary Joe Fernandez in the Eastbourne final and leave an impression of being a strong contender to win Wimbledon.

“It was like deja vu for me,” Fernandez said. “I’ve lost numerous first sets 6-0 to her, so it felt just like the old days.

“I like her chances (at Wimbledon). She’s got a great lefty serve from the grass. She’s tagging the ball well, and there’s not much you can do about it. I’d say the person with the best chance to beat her somewhere is Graf. Besides that, I think she could pretty much handle anybody.”

Stefan Edberg, who once could beat anybody on grass, begins his 14th and final Wimbledon appearance with a Centre Court match against Guy Forget. Edberg won Wimbledon in 1988 and 1990, and was runner-up in 1989. But he lost in the second round the past two years and could have a tough time getting past the big serves of Forget, who has won half of their 12 matches.

Other featured matches on opening day include No. 2 Boris Becker, a three-time champion, against Jean-Philippe Fleurian, and No. 3 Andre Agassi, the 1992 champion, against Doug Flach.

Sampras reached the semifinals of the French Open, winning three five-set matches before “hitting the wall” and losing in the semifinals in straight sets to eventual champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Sampras pulled out of the Queen’s Club tournament and flew home to rest. Despite his lack of grass court preparation, Sampras said he’s “champing at the bit and ready to go.”

“You look at the surroundings here, this is it,” Sampras said. “It always gives me a great feeling when you walk through the gates … It brings back a lot of good memories I’ve had the last three years. This is the granddaddy of them all.”

Sampras regrets, though, that he has not achieved the popularity of previous Wimbledon greats.

“It would be nice to have the crowd on my side this time,” he said. “They all wanted Boris (Becker) to win last year’s final. But it was his 10th anniversary and I understand that. I think I have proved I am up there with guys like Borg and McEnroe.”

If Sampras triumphs again this year, he will become only the second player in the Open era to win a single Grand Slam tournament four or more consecutive times. Bjorn Borg won Wimbledon five straight times from 1976-80.

Sampras said he is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of his coach Tim Gullikson, who died of brain cancer May 3.

“I’ve never experienced death before, and it just opened my eyes and really sobered me up to my life and to tennis,” he said. “After he passed away, tennis wasn’t important to me. It really was the last thing on my mind. But time helps. It’s been a couple of months now, and each day I feel a little bit better. Tim would want me to continue to play well and have fun and be happy.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WIMBLEDON Today on Centre Court Pete Sampras (1), Tampa, Fla., vs. Richey Reneberg, Minneapolis Ann Grossman, Grove City, Ohio, vs. Monica Seles (2), Sarasota, Fla. Stefan Edberg (12), Sweden, vs. Guy Forget, France

This sidebar appeared with the story: WIMBLEDON Today on Centre Court Pete Sampras (1), Tampa, Fla., vs. Richey Reneberg, Minneapolis Ann Grossman, Grove City, Ohio, vs. Monica Seles (2), Sarasota, Fla. Stefan Edberg (12), Sweden, vs. Guy Forget, France