TENNIS / JULIE CART : Seles Might Return to the Tour at La Costa at the End of July

Monica Seles’ return to the professional tennis tour is imminent and may occur in Southern California late next month.

Seles has already announced her intention to play in an exhibition against Martina Navratilova in Atlantic City on July 29.

The exhibition is a precursor to Seles’ return to the Womens Tennis Assn. tour after a two-year absence. She has not played publicly since being stabbed in the back at a tournament on April 30, 1993.

Although Seles’ schedule is expected to be announced by July 8, she is considering making her professional return at the Toshiba Tennis Classic at the La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, July 31-Aug. 6.

Although there are two other tournaments Seles may enter--the Acura Classic at Manhattan Beach on Aug. 7 and the du Maurier Ltd. Open at Toronto on Aug. 14--the Carlsbad event appears to be the most likely.

Wherever she plays first, Seles will use that event as a warm-up for the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 28.

If Seles plays at La Costa, she will be joining one of the best women’s fields outside of a Grand Slam event. The tournament has eight of the world’s top 10 players and all of the top five.

Unranked, Seles will return to the tour under a deal worked out by, among others, Navratilova. Seles is expected to be given a co-No. 1 ranking for her first few tournaments so that the former No. 1 will be able to avoid qualifying.

If that comes to pass, Seles will share her ranking with Steffi Graf, who will be at La Costa.

The tournament’s co-director said there is one wild-card entry left to be assigned.

“Of course, if Monica chooses to come here, we’d give her the wild card,” Raquel Giscafre said, laughing. “I think Monica is going to be great news for tennis in general and for the women’s game in particular.”

Seles played at La Costa in 1991, losing in the final to Jennifer Capriati.

“Monica loved it here when she played a few years ago,” Giscafre said. “Her family was here and they liked it so much they stayed a week after the tournament. There are a lot of courts, and the players like the fact that we’ve resurfaced them so that they are the same as the U.S. Open.”

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Few players are as mercurial on and off the court as Andre Medvedev. When his mind and body are operating in sync, the 20-year-old Ukrainian is a fluid and powerful tennis player. When the two elements are not in harmony, Medvedev can unravel quicker than any player on the tour.

Likewise, when Medvedev is engaged and interested in an interview, he’s bright and articulate and often funny. But when something has happened to displease him, Medvedev can grow surly.

He also is prone to lecturing and wagging his finger at reporters during news conferences, going on about his knowledge of the newspaper business. Tour representatives often look on and wince, but it’s difficult to take Medvedev with anything but good humor.

Medvedev went off on a tangent during a news conference at the French Open. It’s never clear what sets him off, but Medvedev suddenly began ranting about a misquote from a tournament two years ago.

“This is my quote, I still remember it,” he said to a roomful of puzzled reporters. “You don’t remember it because you miswrite it. I would like to ask everybody here to write the quotes I tell you to write, because I remember one year and two years ago I had an unbelievable relationship with the press, until I met some journalist that look nice to me that would laugh in your face, smile, then would write something that I would never say. And we cannot go on like this.

“I know that without tennis I am nobody. I am really nobody. For this reason, I respect [that] this is my job. Your job is to write about me and other things. My job is to make you write about me--to play good enough so that you invite me for the press conference.

“If you want, I will only say, ‘Yeah, I hit my forehand good. I hit my backhand good. Last question, see you later.’ If you want to write these stories, then you have to write what I say. I am ready to talk to you more. I am ready to be like I was two years ago. But you have to trust me and I have to trust you. You have to write exactly what I say and then we will have a better press conference. You will have more fun, you will have more stories and I will feel more comfortable talking to you.”

Tennis Notes

The Whittier Narrows Tennis Center is a host site for the Infiniti Men’s Amateur Championships, the national club-level tournament. The entry deadline is June 28 for the July 8-9 event. . . . Tickets are on sale for the U.S. Davis Cup semifinal match against Sweden, Sept. 22-24 at Las Vegas. Series tickets are on sale at Caesars Palace, and single-day tickets will be available July 15. . . . Sixth-ranked Goran Ivanisevic has been added to the field for the Infiniti Open, July 31-Aug. 6 at UCLA.

NCAA champions Keri Phebus and Susie Starrett of UCLA have been given wild-card berths in qualifying for the Acura Classic at Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. Phebus won the NCAA singles championship and teamed with Starrett to win the doubles competition. Lindsay Davenport, the top-ranked American player, has joined the field of the main draw, along with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Jana Novotna and Mary Joe Fernandez.

Marianne Werdel Witmeyer, Nicole Arendt and Chanda Rubin have been named to the U.S. Fed Cup team by captain Billie Jean King. The U.S. plays France in the semifinals on July 22-23 at Wilmington, N.C. . . . The U.S. Open increased its total prize money to $9,862,522. The men’s and women’s winner will each receive $575,000.