FRENCH OPEN / WOMEN : Seles Hopes to Remain a Cut Above Graf

Monica Seles came to Paris with a new coiffure in a new color.

Steffi Graf showed up with the same flaxen hair, but a new attitude.

Today they will find out who looks better on the red clay when they meet for the women’s French Open championship at Roland Garros Stadium.

Seles, the world’s top-ranked player, is trying for her third consecutive French Open championship. The last woman to win three in a row was Hilde Sperling of Germany in the mid-1930s.

Graf, seeded second, could tell her younger opponent how difficult winning three in a row is. The German won at Roland Garros in 1987 and ‘88, but was upset in the 1989 final by then-unheralded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain.

Even if Graf unseats Seles today, she will not earn enough points to regain the No. 1 ranking on the Women’s Tennis Assn. tour.

But before she can consider the rankings, she must figure a way to stop Seles’ two-handed ground strokes. Seles’ task is equally demanding. She cannot match Graf’s serving game, and must find a way to counter on the return.

“I’m going to have to be ready for a lot of running,” said Seles, who dyed her blonde hair black before the tournament started.

Seles should be in the right frame of mind. She ran as if she were in a race in defeating Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina in Thursday’s semifinals, crossing the finish line a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victor.

Seles, who has won four Grand Slam titles in dominating women’s tennis in the 1990s, said she has not seen Graf play at Roland Garros.

“Whenever I played her, we have produced some great matches,” she said.

But none this year, since the two have yet to meet. Graf holds a 5-2 advantage and has won the last two. The last time they met, Graf beat Seles on clay in the final of the 1991 Citizens Cup in Hamburg, Germany, 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3.

If Seles can turn today’s match into a baseline battle, she has a good chance of overcoming Graf, who advanced with a 0-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Sanchez Vicario.

“If she can move the ball around and hit her shots, I think she has a very good chance,” Sanchez Vicario said of Seles. “She is stronger on the baseline.”

Still, Graf, approaching her 23rd birthday, has has regained the confidence that made her the premier player of the late 1980s.

“I have a bit of a different attitude,” Graf said. “I think I do enjoy it right now a lot more than maybe I have in the last year. I am very calm. I don’t really have any ups and downs.”

Until Seles came along, Graf was a bit lonely at No. 1. She became uninterested because she was so far ahead of the competition, and lost her competitiveness.

Now, she wants to regain that dominance.

“My goal here was to reach the final,” Graf said after winning an inspired semifinal match.

Perhaps she wants a little more?

“I think I have the experience of being there, and I’ll definitely be ready for it,” she said.