Skiing Injury May Sideline Graf 3 Months

Steffi Graf, the No. 1-ranked women’s tennis player in the world, may miss three months after she fell and chipped a bone in her right thumb while attempting to elude photographers during a cross-country skiing sequence for a film being shot in Switzerland.

Graf, 20, was injured Wednesday at St. Moritz, where she was acting in a bit part for a film called, “Fire, Ice and Dynamite.” According to her agent, cameras were filming Graf as she was cross-country skiing when several photographers approached her.

“She was bombarded by paparazzi unaffiliated with the movie,” said Phil de Picciotto of Advantage International.

Graf tried to ski away from the photographers but lost her balance and fell on her right hand. Graf’s arm was placed in a cast after X-rays revealed a chipped bone in the thumb on her right hand, with which she holds her racket.

Additional X-rays of Graf’s thumb will be taken today to determine whether she needs surgery. Reuters reported that Graf will be examined in Heidelberg, West Germany. If Graf does require surgery, she could be out for 10 to 12 weeks, her agent said.

Such a timetable would mean that Graf might be able to return for the Italian Open, scheduled for the week of May 7. Graf, who won the Australian Open--the first Grand Slam event on the tennis calendar--last month, would then have three full weeks to prepare for the French Open, which begins May 28 in Paris.

In 1988, Graf won tennis’ Grand Slam with victories in all four of the year’s major events: Wimbledon and the French, U.S. and Australian Opens. Since Graf won her first of three consecutive Australian Opens in 1988, she has victories in eight of the last nine Grand Slam events.

Her only Grand Slam defeat in three years was when Arantxa Sanchez scored a three-set upset in last year’s French Open final.

De Picciotto said Graf has withdrawn from only two tournaments so far, the Virginia Slims of Florida, which begins March 5 in Boca Raton; and the Lipton International Players Championship the following week in Key Biscayne, Fla.