TENNIS / BILL DWYRE : Even Men’s Event Keeping an Eye on Seles

This will be an especially interesting week for Southern California professional tennis tournaments, and none of the three scheduled even begins until July 31.

The eyes, ears and hearts of promoters for the women’s tournament in San Diego--La Costa--starting July 31, the men’s tournament at UCLA starting the same day and the women’s tournament at Manhattan Beach starting Aug. 7 will all be tuned to Monica Seles.

Seles will make her competitive return Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J., where she will play Martina Navratilova in an exhibition match that will probably show whether, after her long layoff, she can still grunt and giggle.

But the real question--can she still play?--won’t be answered until she tries the rigors of a real tournament, and that probably will be at La Costa or Manhattan Beach. Whichever tournament gets her also gets sellouts, media frenzy and international attention, not to mention a nightly splash on “SportsCenter.” For a non-Grand Slam event, it doesn’t get any better than that.

The men’s event promoters won’t be real unhappy if Seles delays her comeback until Manhattan Beach, freeing up more newspaper space and air time for the traditional L.A. event long known as the Pacific Southwest tournament and now going by the label of the Infiniti Open.

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Seles, out of tennis for more than two years since she was stabbed in the back during a tournament by a nut-case fan in Germany, has committed to playing this year’s U.S. Open, which begins the last week of August. She is nursing some tendinitis in her knees, so it is not clear whether she will come directly from the East Coast to La Costa for the Toshiba-sponsored event or rest the knees another week and start at Manhattan Beach at the event sponsored this year for the first time by Acura. Nor is it clear when it will be made clear.

One thing is clear, though. Her comeback is being treated, in tennis circles, as was Michael Jordan’s in basketball.

She has been given a co-No. 1 ranking with Steffi Graf, has started to make herself available to selected reporters after two years of pretty much staying behind the walls of her Sarasota, Fla., estate and even did a press conference call last week to help pump the Navratilova match.

Among the things she said: “Women’s tennis was there before me or anybody.”

The Sports Illustrated cover article on her a few weeks ago was also a nice mixture of heart strings and psychobabble: “I didn’t think at age 19 I would have to deal with this. I was playing and suddenly I wasn’t playing, and it changed my daily life. And all these emotions, I didn’t know I could feel. How do I want to live my life? You have to decide: If you live till 90 living this way, do you really want to live?”

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Bob Kramer, director of the men’s tournament, is not only awaiting word on Seles. He also is awaiting entries from Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Michael Chang. The odds are not great on any of the three, including Becker, who won here last year.

“I’ve got plenty of wild cards available, and plenty of money [from this year’s new sponsor],” Kramer said. “All I need is for somebody to say yes.”

One player who has said yes is last year’s finalist, Australian Mark Woodforde, who also took the doubles title with John Fitzgerald. Woodforde is ranked No. 26 in the world and, if none of the bigger guns make last-minute entries, will be seeded fifth behind Goran Ivanisevic, Michael Stich, Richard Krajicek and Thomas Enqvist.

Not bad for a guy generally considered a doubles specialist.

“Singles has always been my primary thing,” Woodforde said the other day. “That’s how I grew up, and that’s how I still feel.”

Still, he is one of only 33 players to have held the No. 1 ranking in the world in doubles, and he and his longtime partner, Todd Woodbridge, just won their third consecutive Wimbledon title.

“Todd’s the same as I am on that,” Woodforde said. “He thinks of his singles as his No. 1 thing, and we root for each other to do well in singles.”

How did the Woodies prepare for their pursuit of a third Wimbledon title?

“The week before the majors, we just play singles,” Woodforde said. “Always have, probably always will.”

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Tennis Notes

Mark Winters of the Southern California Tennis Assn. reports that the recent death of star junior player Julie Banks has left area fans stunned. Banks was an A student at Victor Valley High, the SCTA’s most improved player in 1992 and had accepted a tennis scholarship to play this fall at Boston University. Banks, on medication for a manic-depressive condition, took her own life in early July. . . . Venus Williams will conduct a tennis clinic for needy youngsters Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Arthur Ashe Memorial Park, 5001 Rodeo Rd., Los Angeles.

* Times staff writer Julie Cart contributed to this column.