TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : Graf Pulls Out of Evert Cup, but Seles Mulls Entering

The best rivalry in women’s tennis? For years, it was Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Lately, it has been Monica Seles and Steffi Graf. But this week in Indian Wells, the tournament that uses Evert’s name--the Matrix Essentials/Evert Cup--has lost a matchup that probably would have stolen the show: Graf and Jennifer Capriati.

Graf said Saturday that she was pulling out because of a pulled stomach muscle.

Officials were hoping that defending champion Monica Seles, ranked No. 1 in the world, would replace Graf. Although she had declined to play at Indian Wells, Seles said Saturday that she might change her plans. She will decide today after she plays Navratilova in the finals of the Paris Open.

With Graf out and Seles unsure, Capriati and Mary Joe Fernandez are the headliners in the field for the Matrix/Evert Cup, which will be played Monday through Sunday at Hyatt Grand Champions.

The tournament also is the first event in a comeback by 30-year-old Tracy Austin.

“Well, I’m glad she picked my tournament,” Evert said. “She won’t be mentally tough. I know if I came back, mentally I would be a wreck. She’ll be at a real disadvantage, but it’s really gutsy of her.”

Hello, sponsor? Now that Kraft has told the Women’s Tennis Assn. it won’t continue as worldwide sponsor of the women’s pro tour beyond 1994, when its contract ends, the tennis ball lies in the court of Gerard Smith, WTA executive director.

Smith has long lobbied that the WTA needs more clout in running its own game, and that sponsors’ dollars were out there for the taking. It remains to be seen if corporations will line up this year to commit serious money to something that won’t happen until 1995.

Despite very low ratings, the WTA leadership has long felt that their television rights were worth a great deal, much more than many believed, and that the WTA could attract a sponsor willing to spend a lot of money and then stand in the background while the WTA runs its own show. Time will also tell if he is right about that.

“The WTA would like to be more of a partner, to call the shots a lot more and be involved in more decision-making,” said Evert, a business adviser to the WTA and former WTA president. “Sponsors who are OK with that, we’ll be happy with that.”

The Green Team: Three of the four members of the U.S. team will be playing their first Davis Cup match when the United States opens defense of its title in March in Australia.

The USTA announced last week that Brad Gilbert, David Wheaton, Richey Reneberg and Jim Grabb will play against Australia on grass in Melbourne.

Only Gilbert has played a Davis Cup match.

None of the four players who won the title against Switzerland--Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and John McEnroe--will be playing.

Goran update: Goran Ivanisevic, known as Mr. Palm Springs after his tongue-in-cheek critique of the desert area’s pleasures last spring, might not make a return engagement. Ivanisevic is doubtful for the Newsweek Champions Cup, which will be played March 1-7 at Hyatt Grand Champions.

Fifth-ranked Ivanisevic has a stress fracture of his right foot and has pulled out of the Australian Open and tournaments in Milan and Stuttgart. He is supposed to test his foot again this week in Rotterdam, with Newsweek the following week. Ivanisevic has not yet withdrawn from either event.

Top-ranked Courier heads the entry list that includes No. 2 Sampras, No. 3 Stefan Edberg, No. 4 Boris Becker, Ivanisevic, No. 6 Petr Korda, No. 7 Michael Chang, No. 8 Agassi, No. 10 Sergi Bruguera and No. 11 Michael Stich.

Edberg withdrew from the Stuttgart event because of a back injury.

Epitaph: Former Australian star John Newcombe wrote a guest column in the Sydney Daily Telegraph last week after Arthur Ashe’s death from complications of AIDS. Newcombe met Ashe for the first time at the 1960 junior Davis Cup in Miami.

“In the late ‘60s and 1970s, when the racial bigots would start espousing their views on blacks, I would say, ‘Why don’t I invite Arthur Ashe so you can explain all this logic to him?’ The answer was always: ‘Oh, but he’s different.’

“No, Arthur Ashe was not different. He was simply a man who was able to overcome two of the worst human traits--bigotry and racial hatred. Arthur’s passing is a loss to his family and to tennis, but more than that, it’s the loss of a person who could truly speak about life.”

Entry list: Chang and Stich are early entries for the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament. Chang, 21, ranked No. 7, won the 1989 French Open. Stich, 24, ranked No. 11, is the 1991 Wimbledon champion. The Volvo/Los Angeles tournament, won last year by Richard Krajicek, will be played Aug. 2-8 at UCLA.

Chang and Courier will play an exhibition on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Forum.

Tennis Notes

Fund-raising efforts in Memphis produced a $1.25-million endowment for the creation of the Arthur Ashe Chair for Pediatric AIDS Research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. . . . Alert John McEnroe: The USTA is considering using an electronic line-calling system during the U.S. Open. The Tennis Electronic Line (TEL) system, which was tested on four courts at the 1992 U.S. Open, uses electronic wires beneath the court that detect metallic powder inside specially designed tennis balls. . . . Jack Kramer presented a tennis ball to Mayor Tom Bradley at City Hall on Friday in honor of the selection by the International Tennis Hall of Fame of Los Angeles as the city of the year for 1993. The honor is given each year to a city for contributions to the game of tennis.