Seles Tries Again but Fails Again

What a strange turn of events. Monica Seles, whose tennis game has always been grounded in fearlessness and reckless shotmaking, has suddenly lost her nerve on the court. She is tentative and losing to opponents and in tournaments where, in the past, she had been her most indestructible.

It’s the way she played three weeks ago at the French Open, and it’s the way she played Wednesday at Wimbledon. Meek, stymied and unsure, the second-seeded Seles lost in the second round to Katerina Studenikova of Slovakia, ranked No. 59 in the world, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.

It is the first time in six years that Seles has lost to a player of such a low ranking. It is also the earliest that Seles--holder of nine Grand Slam event titles--has been eliminated from a Grand Slam event.

Studenikova, 23, earned the tournament’s biggest upset by playing Seles’ role. The tall and powerful player frustrated Seles with a low, sliced backhand and tormented her with lashing forehand drives. Studenikova dictated the pace, the tempo and the tactics of the match while Seles looked on blankly.

It’s the same look Seles had while she was being whipped by Jana Novotna in the quarterfinals of the French. There, Seles said that for the first time, she felt fear during a match. And, Wednesday, just as against Novotna, Seles was unable to change her tactics during the match.

“Usually, in the middle of a match, if I feel I am not winning with that play, I used to change it. I don’t think I made the reassessment, at the French or here.

“If I had lost and gone out and played well, that would be different. Obviously, I don’t think the consistency of my game is there, because I can play great some matches and play terribly some matches, or not take chances at key points. You have to take your chances at key points. You know, it just comes down to the close points. I have to go for them like I did before, really fiercely, and that’s not what I’m doing right now.”

Seles’ return to tennis began well and rolled along smoothly. In the last six months, her game has regressed, a change attributed to physical and mental lapses. Seles returned to the tour last August after a 2 1/2-year hiatus after being stabbed during a tournament in Germany. She won the first tournament she entered. She lost to Steffi Graf in the finals of the U.S. Open, then began the year by winning at Sydney and the Australian Open. Seles played Studenikova at the Australian Open and beat her, 6-1, 6-1, in a match that looked totally different from Wednesday’s.

Injuries have kept Seles off the tour and off the training court, but things seemed to be in order as she won impressively at Eastbourne, the Wimbledon warmup. That illustrates the problem of Seles’ inconsistency. When she says she doesn’t go for shots and take chances, she means that she doesn’t have the confidence to try those shots; they might not be there.

The skill is there, but without the confidence to apply it, Seles is without weapons.

Seles, who built her considerable reputation by being mentally strong, was outplayed and out-thought by Studenikova. Again and again Seles sent shots to Studenikova’s backhand, and with dulling regularity Studenikova sliced a return at a sharp, unretrievable angle.

Seles led, 5-3, in the first set then lost four games in a row to lose the set, and much of her confidence.

“I felt I should have closed out the first set tons of times,” Seles said. “At 4-2, I had a break to go up 5-2. I didn’t take chances and she did and for her, when she took the chances, most of the time they went in.”

Seles rallied to win the second set, breaking Studenikova at 4-5, but it was tight the entire time. She got an early break in the third and was serving at 3-2 when there was a 35-minute rain delay.

Studenikova came back from the the time off the stronger player.

“I think it helped me a little bit,” she said. “I was a little tired at the beginning of the third set, and also I was a little bit disappointed that I lost the second set. I was thinking about it in the dressing room and I said, ‘OK, come on, you can win this match.’ ”

Studenikova broke Seles in the eighth game of the third set and, despite long rallies, prevailed to win. The Court 1 crowd gave both players a long ovation, and Karolj Seles, Monica’s father--who has counseled his daughter to have fun playing tennis--applauded both players.

Seles yearns to do well at Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam event she has not won. It is the only tennis Seles said she watched while she was away from the game. She even went so far as to say her season was keyed to this event, thus her disappointment is great. Although she’s also playing doubles--she’ll play her first-round match today--Seles is out of Wimbledon in the form that meant the most to her.

Seles’ last Wimbledon, in 1992, was memorable. She moved quietly through the tournament until her quarterfinal match against the bellicose Nathalie Tauziat of France. Being soundly beaten, Tauziat began to complain that Seles’ grunting was a distraction and could the umpire do anything about it?

Of course, the umpire did nothing. But the English tabloids could, and did. The Grunt-O-Meter was born. Seles was shocked by the controversy but had one of her biggest wins by beating Martina Navratilova in the semifinals before losing to Graf in the finals.

Players used to fear playing Seles, but she may be losing that valuable asset. Now it is Graf they fear, and, perhaps, the memory of the player Seles used to be.