Seles Will Miss U.S. Open, Return Date Still Unknown

Monica Seles, sidelined since being stabbed by a fan in April, will be unable to defend her U.S. Open title, and it is unclear when she will return to daily competition, her doctors said Thursday.

Seles, who also won the U.S. Open in 1991, had been undergoing rehabilitation here since she was assaulted.

“She is not ready to return to competitive tennis,” Drs. Richard Steadman and Richard Hawkins said in a statement. “There is still no way to accurately predict when she will be able to return to daily competition.”

Seles was the world’s top-ranked women’s player when she was stabbed April 30 at a tournament at Hamburg, Germany. The assailant said he was a Steffi Graf fan who wanted to knock Seles from the No. 1 ranking. Since then, Graf has taken over the top spot, winning the French Open and Wimbledon.

Seles had not entered the U.S. Open, but would have received a wild card berth if she had requested one, according to Richard Finn, a U.S. Tennis Assn. spokesman.

The statement said Seles is “at an undisclosed location continuing her rehabilitation.”

Last month, Seles’ agent, Stephanie Tolleson, said “there’s no real effective way to anticipate when she’ll be ready to play again.”

“She wants to be out on the court, so that’s obviously frustration,” Tolleson said. “But she’s hanging in there and working very hard.”

In July, the German newspaper Bild said Seles would begin her comeback at the Nokia Grand Prix tournament in Essen, Germany, which goes from Oct. 25-31.

But both Seles and Tolleson have denied those reports.

“It’s day to day, and it’s a matter of rehabilitation,” Tolleson said then. “And that’s what Monica has been doing, rehabbing. She’s real dedicated, but just not ready.”