TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : Wimbledon’s Slippery Grass Puts Seles’ Win Streak in Jeopardy

Monica Seles can win her sixth consecutive tournament beginning Monday. Unfortunately for her, the tournament is at Wimbledon.

It has been 32 matches and 15 weeks since Seles has lost, but she has been playing on hard courts and clay, not the grass on which she will be standing at the All England Club. Chances are, she won’t be around very long. In her Wimbledon debut last year, Seles lost, 6-0, 6-1, to Steffi Graf in the fourth round, apparently convinced that the only thing grass is good for is cow chow.

Now, she’s back, and the 16-year-old French Open champion knows her winning streak is looking a little shaky.

“It’s a lot slipperier and last year I was slipping all over the place,” Seles said. “It’s quicker and faster, so I just have to hit hard and not have any long points. The French Open was real tiring. I’m still a little bit tired. I’m not feeling as strong.

“I think the French Open took a lot out of me mentally. I might go on court a little bit more tired than before.”

Seles is armed with a new endorsement contract from Fila for clothes and shoes, and her brother and agent, Zoltan, is now shopping for a racket deal to take advantage of her French Open success.

Martina Navratilova, 33, will be among her main competition. Navratilova is tied with Helen Wills Moody with eight Wimbledon titles. Seles lined up in support Navratilova.

“I believe Martina can do well this year,” Seles said. “The field is wide open. Nobody is much better than anybody else. If she can concentrate better, her game is perfect for Wimbledon. She should be a tough one to beat, if not the toughest.”

Seles said Graf, the No. 1-ranked, two-time defending Wimbledon champion, may be vulnerable.

“It’s hard to say. . . . Steffi has been winning for many years. She’s been No. 1 for three or four years. She’s beaten so many players,” Seles said. “You play them so many times, it’s very hard to beat them, 6-0, 6-0, like before. The players you beat four times, the next time they will feel no pressure. They will play their best. So, it is not as easy for Steffi.

“I think she’s still going to be good. How good, you never know.”

Getting the points: Since the Masters has gone by the wayside, the new IBM/ATP tour has refined its first season-ending tournament in hopes that it may be distinguished by something other than prize money.

The ATP Tour World Championship, scheduled for Nov. 13-18 in Frankfurt, West Germany, will have an effect on the rankings by awarding computer points, the first time a men’s season-ending event has done so.

As did the Masters, the event will have a round-robin format. The winners of each round-robin match will receive 50 computer points, the semifinal winner 100 points and the final winner 150 points. An undefeated champion would get a total of 400 computer points.

In the field: Zina Garrison, Jana Novotna and Katarina Maleeva have entered the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles Aug. 13-19 at Manhattan Country Club, joining a field that includes defending champion Navratilova, Seles, Gabriela Sabatini and Mary Joe Fernandez.

Garrison, who won the Dow tournament last week in Birmingham, England, lost only two sets in her five matches in the first grass court warmup for Wimbledon. Novotna was a surprise semifinalist in the French Open, where she lost to Graf, and Maleeva has beaten Navratilova this year.

Jennifer Capriati, 14, has decided against playing in Manhattan Beach. Capriati will play in the Canadian Open and a special event in Mahwah, N.J., to warm up for the U.S. Open, according to her agent, John Evert.

Navratilova and Graf are entered in the Great American Bank tournament Aug. 6-12 at the San Diego Tennis and Racket Club.

In the field II: What do Bobby Riggs, Michael Chang, Billie Jean King, Maureen Connolly, Bob Lutz, Dennis Ralston and Raul Ramirez have in common? All were Southern California Tennis Assn. junior sectional champions.

As many as 1,800 players are expected to enter the 88th annual Southern California Tennis Assn. Junior Sectional Championships, which continue through July 1 at four Orange County locations. It is the largest junior tournament in the nation.

Juniors will compete in 10 age groups--boys’ and girls’ 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18--at Costa Mesa Tennis Club, Los Caballeros Sports Village, A Mile Square in Fountain Valley and Santa Ana Tennis Club. The finals are July 1 at 9 a.m. at Los Caballeros.

The junior sectionals serve as the Southern California age-group championships and as the qualifier for United States Tennis Assn. national tournaments this summer.

Tennis Notes

Jack Kramer will be the special guest of the seventh Ed Edelman East Los Angeles Youth Tennis Clinic in cooperation with the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. The clinic will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Belvedere County Park, 4914 E. Brooklyn Ave. . . . Ivan Baron of Plantation, Fla., was named to the 1990 U.S. National Tennis Team by the United States Tennis Assn. Ranked No. 5 in the USTA Boys’ 18s, Baron won the Italian juniors and reached the quarterfinals of the French Open juniors. The U. S. National Team is part of the USTA Player Development Program, and recent members have included Michael Chang and Jennifer Capriati. . . . The University of Georgia’s Stacey Schefflin and Columbia University’s Jeff Chiang were selected as the 1990 Volvo tennis senior players of the year. Freshmen Meredith McGrath and Jonathan Stark of Stanford were named rookie players of the year.