WIMBLEDON : Graf Puts It Back Together : Tennis: She converts every break point to defeat Sabatini for first Grand Slam victory in 1 1/2 years.

Unlike Monica Seles, Steffi Graf didn’t disappear at Wimbledon Saturday. Indeed, in a women’s singles final in which victory was the obvious pursuit, Graf also achieved vindication.

Graf’s dramatic 6-4, 3-6, 8-6 victory over Gabriela Sabatini accomplished a number of things for the 22-year-old from Bruhl, Germany.

It was her 10th title in a Grand Slam tournament, her third title at Wimbledon and her 21st victory in 30 tries against frequent-rival Sabatini. It also put her in position to regain her No. 1 ranking in the world, a spot that was taken from her this spring by Seles, whose 11th-hour cancellation because of some unexplained injury made her the talk of Wimbledon while boosting Graf into the No. 1-seeded spot.

Graf’s victory, on a beautiful sunny day before 13,000 on Centre Court, also marked the first Grand Slam title she has won since the 1990 Australian, and that’s where the vindication comes in.

In the nearly 18 months since the Australian, Graf’s game seemed to disintegrate in direct proportion to her family’s stability. It became well known that her concentration slipped badly when reports of her father’s affair with a German model became public.

Peter Graf had been her mentor and support system. And now, suddenly, his indiscretion had become her distraction.

Finally, she lost her No. 1 ranking to Seles, then hit a rock bottom of sorts in the French Open, when Arantxa Sanchez Vicario beat her in the semifinals, 6-0, 6-2.

Clearly, Steffi Graf, No. 1 in the world for more than three years and virtually invincible in the eyes of both fans and opponents for much of that time, had become vincible, not to mention fragile.

So when she cracked the final forehand cross-court here Saturday, the ball barely clearing the net and zipping to the far right-hand corner of the court before Sabatini could take a step, the doubt that had been erased in that one large swipe of her racket was much more Graf’s than anybody else’s.

“It gave me so much pleasure to see myself getting through it, winning a tough match, winning a close match, not letting up,” Graf said afterward. “I needed it, just the win again. I needed it for myself.”

And it didn’t come easily.

She broke Sabatini’s serve in the fifth game of the first set and served out the first set at 6-4. And she started the second set by breaking again.

But then, her recent roller coaster game took a dip, and Sabatini broke Graf’s serve three times for a 6-3 second set.

And then it got really tense. From 4-4 of the third set, each broke each other’s serve until Graf went to serve at 6-6. Twice, Sabatini--who was seeking her first Wimbledon title and her second Grand Slam victory--served for the match, at 5-4 and at 6-5. Twice, Graf broke back, each time displaying remarkable shot-making and risk-taking.

The most dramatic moment was with Sabatini serving at 6-5 and 30-all. The Argentine closed in on the net and hit one volley, then another. Both appeared to be potential putaways, but when Graf ran down a third volley and slapped it down the middle of the court behind Sabatini, a crucial break point had been achieved. The break came on a similar type of shot she would make on match point two games later, only this time from the backhand side. Graf stepped around a shallow serve and cracked a forehand into Sabatini’s deep right corner.

“I think that (the point at 30-all, 6-5) was the most important point, probably, especially at that stage,” Graf said. “I mean, 30-all, maybe match ball, and that was a tough one.”

Graf held serve at 6-6 by hitting a tough forehand passing shot down the line, on game point, then became the aggressor against Sabatini’s serve in the last game.

Afterward, she was asked what she had proved to herself.

“That I had the guts,” she said. “I think I worked through some tough months, and I’m doing the right thing by just trying to play my game, just sticking to it.”

Perhaps the most remarkable statistic of the tournament--at least on a par with Stefan Edberg losing a semifinal match without ever losing a service game Friday--was Graf’s break-point result Saturday. She had seven break-point chances against Sabatini, and came through on all seven; that on the toughest surface in tennis to break serve.

“I knew I could do it,” Graf said, “and I just needed to show it to myself.”

Because this was Wimbledon, the world got to see it, too. Maybe even that part where Seles is.