On Friday, Seles announced that she would go through
shoulder rehab for a month and withdrew from the Zurich
tournament in two weeks. Apparently, Seles is trying to
avoid shoulder surgery as much as she can. In the past,
whenever Seles was out due to injuries, she was out for a
long time. I wouldn't be too surprised if Seles doesn't
play again until 1997.
And then on Saturday, Graf withdrew from her SF match
against Huber in Leipzig, citing the same knee injury that
has been around since Wimbledon. As I pointed out
yesterday, had Graf beaten Huber to reach the Leipzig
final, Graf would have become the outright #1 (and Seles
would have been the Co-#2 with ASV under her special
ranking deal). Now, Graf and Seles will continue to be
co-#1 for the time being. It isn't clear exactly how
serious this injury is, but unless it is a GS event, Graf
just doesn't seem to be that motivated to play in these
days.
Earlier this year, I pointed out that Graf, Seles and
Capriati were in a three-way race for the most number of
withdrawals. Unfortunately, that continues. With only some
2000 fans showing up in the Fed Cup final last week and
Sanchez not playing all that great lately, the WTA Tour
simply continues to be in poor shape.
Chris Smith's Tennis FAQ--http://www.mindspring.com/~csmith
1997--AO:Jan13-26 FO:May26-Jun8 W:Jun23-Jul6 USO:Aug25-Sep7
Lipton:Mar20-30 WTA Champ:Nov17-22