Rehabilitating Seles Might Miss U.S. Open

More than two months after being stabbed in the back, Monica Seles still can’t hit a tennis ball and may not be able to defend her U.S. Open title at New York Aug. 30-Sept. 12.

“Doctors have told me there’s just no way to know,” Seles’ agent, Stephanie Tolleson, said Friday. “She’s continuing her rehabilitation, and there’s no real effective way to anticipate when she’ll be ready to play again.”

Seles said in a written statement: “I wish I could play right now. But the rehabilitation is a slow process, and I have not yet been able to hit the ball, let alone play tennis.”

Seles has been rehabilitating at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colo.

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Jimmy Connors beat Bjorn Borg, 6-1, as the Strings lost to the Phoenix Smash, 27-18, before a World TeamTennis record crowd of 7,693 at America West Arena in Phoenix.

The loss continues Borg’s streak of futility since returning to competitive tennis in 1991. He is winless in all eight of his matches on the IBM/ATP Tour, winning only two of 18 sets, and has lost both of his singles sets with the Strings.

Phoenix (2-0) won the first two sets. Ellis Ferreira and Mary Lou Daniels defeated player/coach Larry Stefanki and Robin White, 6-2, and Carrie Cunningham defeated Kimberly Po, 6-4.

The Strings (0-2) got their only victory when Po and White defeated Cunningham and Daniels, 6-3. Connors and Ferreira closed the match with a 6-5 (5-1) victory over Borg and Stefanki.

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Texas businessman Lamar Hunt will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport, R.I., today as founder of World Championship Tennis, along with Angela Mortimer Barrett, Wimbledon’s 1961 women’s singles champion.

Auto Racing

Alain Prost won the provisional pole position for Sunday’s British Grand Prix at rain-soaked Silverstone with a fast lap of 1 minute 34.483 seconds.

Prost’s Williams-Renault teammate, Damon Hill, was second-fastest, ahead of McLaren-Ford driver Ayrton Senna. Prost, the three-time Formula One champion, was the only driver under 1:36.

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Mark Martin won the pole for the first NASCAR Winston Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H., the Slick 50 300, with a fast lap of 126.871 m.p.h.

Miscellany

The Green Bay Packers signed first-round draft pick George Teague and free-agent running back Alan Pinkett. . . . Croatian forward Dino Radja signed a three-year contract with the Boston Celtics. . . . The NCAA women’s gymnastics committee publicly reprimanded Utah Coach Greg Marsden and sports information director Liz Abel, but refused to say what they had done to merit censure.

The NCAA received a record 267,498 ticket applications for next year’s Final Four in Charlotte, N.C., nearly doubling the previous high of 143,829 requests for the 1991 tournament at Indianapolis. . . . Philippine President Fidel Ramos suspended the country’s top sports official and two others amid allegations of negligence, sexual molestation and physical abuse of athletes.