Year Was Too Emotional for Seles

For Monica Seles, the simple act of moving into 1999 and out of 1998 does not mean the heartaches of this year will be left behind in the rear-view mirror of life.

Nothing is ever that easy.

Seles, 24, said she prefers to deal in the present, not wanting to look too far ahead or too much to the past. After a long fight with cancer, her father and coach Karolj died less than two weeks before the start of the French Open. An uncertain and unsure Monica Seles traveled to Paris, played, and nearly won the tournament with almost no preparation, losing to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in a three-set final.

Months later, Seles was asked about this year, but the present-thinking Seles will not view Jan. 1, 1999, as any sort of turning point.

“No, not really because it is going to be a lot of emptiness there,” Seles said in a conference call last week for the upcoming Chase Championships in New York. “Obviously, I am missing my father. I miss him so much as a coach, which is very difficult for me with my game, where it is going and all that.

“I don’t have him. So that is, for me, in terms of day to day, that is a very tough adjustment. I don’t like to look at closing it [the year] off or not.”

On the court, Seles is searching for some measure of consistency. After reaching the

French final, she had mixed results, losing in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon but winning the Canadian Open in Montreal and an event in Tokyo in September. Sunday, she lost to Mary Pierce in the final at Moscow.

“I just hope I can keep going and practicing and playing matches and just slowly build on this momentum,” Seles said. “That will be my main goal and [also] to play the first six months of the year--which I haven’t done the past two years.”

Seles brought up her father when she was asked about the increasing level of fitness in the women’s game.

“All the time I wanted to be more physically fit just because my father was a triple jump champion in Europe,” Seles said. “He was so into athletics, if he had his dream lived out for me, I would have been a triple jumper.

“But fortunately, thank goodness, that didn’t happen.”

SELES II

In addition to the new No. 1, Lindsay Davenport, seven other players have held the top spot in women’s tennis since the computer ranking system started in 1975.

Seles is one of the other seven.

Which is why she is more than qualified to offer an opinion on whether Davenport has the resolve to stay No. 1 for some time.

“Oh yes, definitely,” Seles said. “From the outside it is hard to see, but she has nerves of steel. She is a very tough person mentally and in everything.”

CONTROVERSY, AGAIN

Before the U.S. Open, television commentators Mary Carillo and Tracy Austin suggested that it might be better if Richard Williams kept quiet, saying he put additional pressure on his daughters Venus and Serena with his often controversial comments. They pointed out that the teenagers were left with the task of dealing with the subsequent fallout.

Apparently, that advice has gone unheeded.

Interviewed in the latest issue of “Women’s Sports & Fitness,” Richard Williams explained the reason for his family’s move to Compton, saying: “I could buy more homes there than the Jews.”

That wasn’t all.

“I wanted to give the Weinsteins, the Rubensteins, the I-forgot-the-other-Steins competition,” he told the magazine. “So I went over there and bought a few hundred, about a hundred homes.”

Lawyer Keven Davis has worked with the Williams family since the early ‘90s, dating to the days Venus Williams first gained national prominence with her dominance in Southern California junior circles as a preteen. Subsequently, the family moved to Florida and Venus did not play the junior circuit after that.

Davis, speaking on behalf of Richard Williams, said he does not believe the comments are representative of Williams’ feelings toward the Jewish community.

“Richard is not anti-anybody,” Davis said. “He doesn’t feel negatively toward any group. . . . I don’t believe Richard is a racist or feels negatively toward anybody.”

RACE FOR NO. 1

Pete Sampras pulls up hurting with a back injury and withdraws from the Lyon Grand Prix in France.

A serious blow to his quest to finish No. 1 for a record six consecutive years?

Not necessarily.

Not when his other major contenders are ailing. The same day Sampras suffered the back injury, No. 3-ranked Patrick Rafter of Australia lost the chance to pick up some ground when he lost to Wayne Ferreira of South Africa in the quarterfinals. Observers in Lyon noted that Rafter looked a bit troubled by a sore knee.

One day later, No. 2-ranked Marcelo Rios of Chile went limping off the court because of a strained hamstring, retiring in the second set of his semifinal match in Lyon. Rios is questionable for this week’s event in Stuttgart. Sampras hopes he will be fit for his opening match there Wednesday.

Maybe it has something to do with Tommy Haas of Germany. Sampras was supposed to play Haas in the quarterfinals when his back started hurting. And who was Rios playing when he strained his hamstring? Haas, of course.

Actually, the biggest winner may be a fast-rising Andre Agassi. Agassi, who was ranked No. 140 this time last year, is No. 6 and will likely move up one spot when the latest rankings are released today.

LUCIC UPDATE

Mirjana Lucic, who fled her homeland of Croatia in the summer because of alleged abusive behavior by her father Marinko, ruled out a possible reconciliation. Marinko Lucic has denied her charges of abuse. “We have been through too much,” Mirjana Lucic told the newspaper Jutarnj List. “We don’t want to see him. The way things are now, I am not going back to Croatia soon, until I feel safe.”