Tracy Austin Picks Up Her Racket Again at 30 : Tennis: Former champion, forced into retirement by injuries, will play in Evert Cup and other tournaments.

Tracy Austin, who became the youngest member of the Tennis Hall of Fame last summer, is returning to tournament tennis on a limited basis. Austin, 30, has accepted a wild-card entry to play in her first event in nearly four years, next month’s Matrix Evert Cup at Indian Wells.

Austin, the youngest winner of the U.S. Open at 16 in 1979 and a two-time Open champion, stopped short of calling it a comeback.

“I’m just going to see how I do,” Austin said Thursday. “It’s not going to be the only tournament I play. This is just the start, then we’ll see. I want to see where I’m at. I don’t really know.

“I’m not going out there and saying I’m going to be a giant-killer. There will be more tournaments. I don’t want to put pressure on myself on (playing) one tournament. That’s ridiculous. We’ll see how it goes.”

Winner of 29 singles titles and once No. 1 in the world, Austin has spent the past several months practicing at the Kramer Club in Rolling Hills, the West End Tennis Club in Torrance and the Manhattan Country Club, hitting with pros Debbie Graham and Kimberly Po and U.S. Open junior champion Lindsay Davenport.

Austin said she told her agent-brother, Jeff, during the Christmas holidays that she was considering playing again on the tour.

“I advised her that if it’s what she enjoyed doing, she should do it,” Jeff Austin said. “Whether she wants to play a lot or play a little, it remains to be seen. She’s in the Hall of Fame, so she’s not doing it for fame or fortune or because she’s got anything to prove.”

Tracy Austin, who lives in Redondo Beach, retired in February 1984 because of recurring neck and back injuries. She did not play singles in another sanctioned event until March 7, 1989, at the Virginia Slims of Indian Wells, where she lost a first-round match to then No. 25-ranked Nicole Provis in three sets. Austin lost to Halle Cioffi in the first round of the Eckard Open a month later.

Austin played TeamTennis for the New Jersey Stars in 1989 but had to quit after she broke her leg in a car accident. Austin has not been ranked since 1983, so she can enter tournaments only if she is offered wild cards. Austin is allowed three wild cards into the main draw and three wild cards into qualifying.

“I just really love to play tennis,” she said. “I want to compete. I’m just going back because I love it. I don’t think I can go in expecting to play the way I used to. I know I won’t be tournament tough.

“Right now, I’m blocking out what everybody else is saying about me--although I must admit everybody has been positive about it so far.”