Seles Won’t Take On Graf in This One

Top-ranked and top-seeded, plagued by an aching back and haunted by the image of her father languishing in a prison hospital, Steffi Graf was eliminated from the du Maurier Ltd. Canadian Open tennis tournament in her first match Tuesday, losing to unseeded Amanda Coetzer.

After a first-round bye, Graf trudged into Tuesday’s match with little preparation. Coetzer, who is ranked 27th, won, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).

The loss ended Graf’s 32-match winning streak and marked the first time in 10 years that she has lost her opening match in a regular WTA event. Before Tuesday’s match, Graf had never lost so much as a set to Coetzer, who is from South Africa.

It was the German’s first loss of the year. Her most recent prior defeat was in the Virginia Slims of New York tournament last November.

Tuesday’s match was played in the middle of the day in 113-degree heat and 90% humidity. The conditions caused the chair umpire to invoke a little-used rule that allowed for a 10 minute “heat break” between the second and third sets.

Graf clearly suffered from a lack of match fitness. She had not played a tournament since she won at Wimbledon early in July, and has practiced fewer than nine days in six weeks because of illness and a chronic back injury.

“I can’t expect to not practice and go to a tournament and win it,” a subdued Graf said after the match. “It’s not something I believe in, either.”

Graf appeared uninterested in tennis. Her father, Peter, is being held in a German prison, facing charges that he failed to pay income tax on $25 million in his daughter’s earnings.

Coetzer had little trouble putting the victory in perspective.

“This is, without a doubt, the best win I’ve ever had,” she said.