Seles’ Attacker Was Obsessed With Helping Graf : Tennis: Politics apparently wasn’t an issue for 38-year-old German lathe operator.

The man who stabbed tennis star Monica Seles is an obsessed German fan of Steffi Graf’s who had stalked her archrival because “he couldn’t bear it that Monica Seles was ranked No. 1 in the world,” police said Saturday.

Seles suffered a half-inch knife wound between the shoulder blades and went into shock after the attack during a courtside break in Friday night’s quarterfinals of the $375,000 Citizen’s Cup in Hamburg.

She was expected to be released from the hospital over the weekend, but doctors say she could be sidelined for one to three months while muscles slashed during the attack heal.

Security guards sitting directly behind Seles immediately overpowered the assailant, whom police identified as Guenter P., a 38-year-old lathe operator from formerly Communist East Germany. In keeping with German law, his full name was not disclosed pending investigation.

Graf, who lost her crown as the world’s top woman player to Seles in 1991, was among the first visitors to Seles’ bedside Saturday morning, according to the German news agency DPA.

A police statement Saturday said the attacker “claimed that he did not want to kill Monica Seles, but that he wanted to render her unable to play.

“He is a fan of Steffi Graf’s and cannot bear it that Monica Seles is ranked No. 1 in the world. For this reason, he had for a long time considered injuring Monica Seles,” the statement said.

During interrogation, the police statement said, Guenter P. “gave the impression of being mentally disturbed.” He was not under the influence of alcohol, it added, and a police spokesman said there was no reason to believe there was any political motive behind the attack on the Serbian-born Seles, who now lives in Sarasota, Fla.

A statement released by the doctors at the University Clinic in the Hamburg suburb of Eppendorf said the knife barely missed Seles’ spinal cord and that no major organs were affected.

“Monica Seles spent a relatively quiet night,” the statement said.

“However, in the face of such malice and the imaginably serious consequences of such an attack, the psychological health of the patient is strained,” the statement added.

The tournament continued as scheduled despite the stunning attack, and officials defended the private security at the stadium. Police said spectators’ bags were not searched and that Guenter P. had been carrying his weapon in a plastic shopping bag.