Graf Has Healthy Attitude

A fit, healthy and eager Steffi Graf is as uncommon a sight on the women’s tennis tour as it is terrifying for the other players. Last season, injured and emotionally besieged, Graf won every Grand Slam event she entered--three--and lost only two matches all year.

Thus, when Graf was asked Friday to project how this season might go, if she might be able to duplicate the feat, her eyebrows shot up and she laughed.

“How am I going to top it?” asked Graf, who today plays her opening match in the State Farm Evert Cup at the Hyatt Grand Champions.

She won perhaps her most memorable title at the U.S. Open, in a tightly played final against Monica Seles. Graf battled not only Seles, but an aching back, a throbbing foot, and the thought of her father in a German prison on tax charges.

Graf said it wasn’t her best tennis, but under the circumstances, she was flawless.

“I definitely went over the limit at that tournament with what I was capable, with my foot and my back and my mind-set,” she said. “I couldn’t expect to do better.”

Two months later, Graf won the WTA Championships. She hasn’t played in a tournament since. In December, she had surgery to remove bone spurs from her left foot, the same procedure she had on her right foot three years ago. Bone spurs also plague Graf in her lower back.

The surgery prevented Graf from competing in the Australian Open, which she missed for the second consecutive year. She went eight weeks without playing tennis. She wasn’t scheduled to play here, but her rehabilitation has gone better than expected and Graf is fed up with competitive inactivity.

“I’m fit and healthy and I’ve been practicing a lot,” she said.

“You go through a lot of effort coming back, both good and bad. It’s a lot of work. It’s been a lot of months since I’ve been on the court. Sometimes you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been taught--it’s inside of me--to play a lot of tennis. It’s difficult. I’m used to training hard. I want to compete.”

A healthy attitude for Graf, frightening words for her opponents.

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Tennis Notes

Joannette Kruger of South Africa suffered heat stroke and collapsed Friday afternoon during a match against American Jolene Watanabe. Kruger was given oxygen and intravenous fluids on court and taken by paramedics to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. At the hospital, she was treated for severe dehydration and was released after blood tests and a CAT scan came back normal.

The problem began when the match was at 5-5 in the first set, with Kruger serving. Chair umpire Susan Burns said Kruger appeared to be in distress and fell to her knees but insisted she could continue. Kruger got up, then collapsed again. Burns caught her then called for medical assistance.

Watanabe was awarded the match. Air temperature was in the high 80s and the temperature on another court at about the time of the match was 116 degrees, although Watanabe said she didn’t think it was a particularly hot day.

The top eight players received byes as the first round began. Among the seeded players who had matches: Shi-Ting Wang of Taipei defeated 11th-seeded Amy Frazier of the United States, 6-0, 6-2; 13th-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France defeated countrywoman Alexia Dechaume-Balleret, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, and 16th-seeded Lisa Raymond of the United States defeated Silvia Farina of Italy, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Monica Seles, whose shoulder injury caused her to withdraw from the Evert Cup, spent Thursday afternoon taping a guest appearance on the CBS sitcom “The Nanny,” which will be aired Monday. Seles played herself.

Pete Sampras, who withdrew Friday from a tournament in Rotterdam because of an injury to his foot, is reportedly on his way here and is expected to remain in the field for the Newsweek Champions Cup, which begins Monday.

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Evert Cup

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Stadium Court, beginning at 10 a.m

* Venus Williams vs. Julie Halard

* Zina Garrison vs. Jing-Qian Yi

* Steffi Graf vs. Kristin Triska

* Jennifer Capriati vs. Rita Grande

* Chanda Rubin vs. Nicole Bradtke or Barbara Schett