Seles and Chang Roll to Easy Victories

It’s a miracle Monica Seles can pick up a tennis racket, much less defeat everyone with it, considering all her injuries and ailments.

She sure didn’t look hurt Tuesday rolling over Iva Majoli, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the Australian Open semifinals, though the litany of problems she recited sounded daunting:

--A strained tendon right above her ankle, suffered in the second set.

--A groin pull that still hasn’t healed from two weeks ago.

--A mysterious virus that hit her last month, causing “terrible blood” with bad platelets and red blood cells.

--Torn ankle ligaments a few months ago.

--Tendinitis in the knee all through the U.S. Open and beyond.

--A few extra pounds she can’t shed because of all the above.

In five matches at the Australian Open, she has lost only 17 games. Imagine if she were healthy.

“On a scale of 10, it’s about a 4,” Seles said of the groin injury she’s been taping and treating with anti-inflammatory pills. “It’s not getting better. It’s not getting worse, which is great. It’s not going to get better until I rest.”

Seles won’t have any rest for a while. Her next match is Thursday against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario or Chanda Rubin, who played Tuesday night.

“It’s pretty tough, maybe impossible, to beat her,” Majoli said of Seles. “I think the only one who can beat her is Steffi.”

Trouble is, Steffi Graf isn’t at the Australian. She’s home recovering from foot surgery, leaving the No. 1 Seles appearing unbeatable.

“She’s going to win the tournament pretty easy,” said the No. 7 Majoli, who didn’t notice Seles being bothered by any injury. “She hit some unbelievable shots when she was stretched.”

Like Seles, men’s No. 5 Michael Chang also hasn’t dropped a set on the way to the semifinals. His latest victim, Sweden’s Mikael Tillstrom, quickly lost, 6-0, 6-2, 6-4.

Chang, a semifinalist in Australia a year ago, will play the winner of Tuesday night’s match between No. 2 Andre Agassi and No. 8 Jim Courier.

“The way he’s been playing the whole two weeks, he’s the one who’s been playing the best tennis,” Tillstrom said of Chang. “But Agassi and Courier usually raise their games going into the quarterfinals.”

Seles, after streaking through nine consecutive games in pursuit of a fourth title, led, 3-0, in the second set when she felt a twinge between her ankle and calf.

A left-hander, she had trouble pushing off on her right foot serving because of the injury, and she dropped that game with a double-fault on break-point. But she shrugged off the pain to win in 58 minutes.

“I was able to finish the match pretty strong,” Seles said. “I said to myself, ‘That’s OK.”’

Annoyed at dropping serve to begin the match when Majoli drilled back winners, Seles plunked down in a chair and flung her towel, then vented her frustration by running out the set.

“The first game I was a little bit lost,” Seles said. “I was expecting a slower pace, and all of a sudden here were these bazookas coming back.”

The only problems she had the rest of the way were the pulled tendon and a little lapse in the final game, when she fended off three break points before drilling a two-fisted forehand winner cross-court to close her 26th consecutive Australian Open victory.

Chang said he’d “take a peek” at the Agassi-Courier match but doesn’t much care whom he plays. He hasn’t taken anyone lightly so far, and knows he can’t in the semifinals.

In matches Monday, women’s No. 11 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy lost, 6-1, 6-4, to the tournament’s youngest player, 15-year-old Martina Hingis of Switzerland and men’s No. 4 Boris Becker overcame his usual slow start for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Brett Steven of New Zealand.