Wimbledon Loses Seles After Injury : Tennis: Mysterious accident is blamed for her unprecedented withdrawal. She loses her chance to win Grand Slam.

Top-seeded Monica Seles has withdrawn from next week’s Wimbledon tennis tournament after a minor accident, losing her chance to win tennis’ Grand Slam, tournament officials said Friday.

No information was available on the accident.

“It is a complete mystery,” Wimbledon referee Alan Mills said after getting the news only hours before a meeting to arrange the first day’s order of play. “It came as a great surprise to me.”

Wimbledon officials asked Seles’ agent for more information but were told that the 17-year-old Florida-based Yugoslav was not prepared to give details.

A statement from Seles, passed on by Wimbledon officials to the media at the Eastbourne women’s tournament, merely said an injury caused by the accident prevented Seles from playing next week.

“I am very disappointed to miss Wimbledon this year but look forward to returning in 1992,” Seles said in the statement.

Seles, ranked No. 1 in the world, won the French Open two weeks ago and the Australian Open in January, so victory on Wimbledon’s grass would have taken her three-quarters of the way to a Grand Slam.

Officials said that because of Seles’ withdrawal, the women’s seeded players each would move up a position, Steffi Graf of Germany, a two-time Wimbledon champion, taking over as No. 1.

That means Graf and Martina Navratilova, the only former Wimbledon champions in the field, will be in opposite halves of the draw and could meet in the final.

“I think that Graf is the greatest danger to my chances of winning the title for a 10th time,” Navratilova said before Seles’ withdrawal.

The reorganization was designed to cause as little disruption as possible to the draw. Only five changes result among the first-round matches.

The reshuffle leaves Graf expected to meet Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who beat her in the French Open semifinals.

Tennis historians said it was unprecedented for a player top-seeded at Wimbledon to withdraw in such circumstances and at such short notice since the tournament began in 1877.

“I think Monica is going to come up not with a better reason, but a specific explanation, because Wimbledon just happens to be the biggest tournament in the world,” said Chris Evert, a former champion who will be doing television commentary this year.

“I am just very shocked after the way she played the French,” Evert said. “I guess something happened in the interim that caused the injury and I think every one would be very curious what it is.”

Seles, who returned to the United States after the French Open, had complained about shin problems after her victory in Paris.

Friday’s statement from Seles said she expected to be back on the tour “in a few weeks.”