Graf’s Hand Injured in Skiing Accident : Tennis: World’s No.1 woman player is expected to be out of action for a long time due to splintered bone in thumb.

Steffi Graf, the world’s top-ranked woman tennis player, splintered a bone in the thumb of her playing hand during a skiing vacation in Switzerland and will be out of action for a long time, her spokesman said today.

Graf fell on her right arm during a cross-country outing with her father in the Swiss resort of St. Moritz on Wednesday.

She was moved to the University Hospital in Heidelberg, West Germany, where a specialist determined that she had splintered a bone in the thumb of her right hand.

A medical examination at the hospital ruled out earlier reports that Graf had torn ligaments in her right wrist in the fall.

Horst Schmitt, Graf’s spokesman, said that the 20-year-old tennis star’s hand is swollen and that another examination will be made Friday if the swelling diminishes.

Her family informed the Women’s International Tennis Assn. that the injury will keep Graf out of tournaments next month in Boca Raton and Key Biscayne, Fla.

It was not immediately known if she will be able to make the Grand Slam events in the French Open in Paris, beginning May 28, or Wimbledon, which starts June 25.

Graf opened her bid for another Grand Slam sweep last month by winning her third straight Australian Open.