With No Surgery, Graf to Play in French Open

Steffi Graf said she will be ready to play in the French Open after learning Monday that she will not need surgery to repair her broken thumb.

Doctors, however, told the world’s top-ranked woman tennis player that she will not be able to resume swinging a racket for about six weeks.

Graf splintered a bone in her right thumb when she fell last week while on skis, apparently trying to evade photographers at the Swiss resort of St. Moritz.

She was examined at the Heidelberg University Hospital last Thursday, but a decision on whether to operate was postponed because of swelling.

Horst Cotta, a specialist at the Heidelberg hospital, said Monday that Graf will not need surgery.

Graf has withdrawn from two tournaments in Florida next month.