Upbeat Seles Resumes Search for Her Top Form

If you have won nine Grand Slam titles and 45 singles championships, it should be about as easy to make a speech as it is to spend the winner’s check, right?

Well . . .

Monica Seles came down with a severe case of stage fright and a cracking voice speaking in front of congressional leaders and other officials in Washington last month while accepting the Flo Hyman Award on National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Weeks later, she laughed about it.

“I was sort of out of my element,” she said. “I told Billie Jean King she should have come. It’s so difficult for me, talking in public, public speaking.”

It used to be so easy in her carefree teenage days as a No. 1.

Now 26, Seles is hardly carefree, having experienced the stabbing in Hamburg by a deranged fan in 1993; the loss of her father and coach, Karolj, in 1998, and a long series of injuries.

She played with a stress fracture in her right foot last summer and finally could go on no longer, missing more than five months. She returned last month, winning at Oklahoma City. Last week, Lindsay Davenport defeated her, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Seles and Davenport are here for the Indian Wells Tennis Masters Series, which starts today with first- and second-round action at the new $75-million Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

The top-seeded players, in order, are Martina Hingis of Switzerland, Davenport, defending champion Serena Williams, Nathalie Tauziat of France, Mary Pierce of France, Conchita Martinez of Spain, Seles and Anna Kournikova of Russia.

Seles has a first-round bye and will play Silvia Farina of Italy in the second round today.

“I’m really happy to be playing again,” Seles said of the longest layoff of her career caused by a tennis injury. “I just missed being on the court. I had to wait so long. I couldn’t play until the pain was over.”

Seles kept waiting. It was particularly difficult for her to miss the Australian Open, an event she has won four times.

Now, she is splitting time between coaches. Former tour player Jimmy Arias worked with her in Scottsdale and she is with Bobby Banck here. She has also trained with track coach Bobby Kersee.

There is one other big difference. Actually, it’s a smaller difference. Seles is playing with a smaller racket face, a 110-square-inch face, down from 130. It offers more control, Seles said.

“She hits the ball almost better than anybody, one of the best,” Davenport said of their meeting in Arizona. “She returned serve great. Every time I play her, she just goes after the ball.

“Her big weakness is movement. It’s the thing that’s missing, that prevents her from being [among the top five players].”

Seles is frequently asked whether she can be a factor at the top again.

“Only time will tell,” she said. “It is anybody’s guess. It’s my guess too, so it depends on a lot of things.”

*

The qualifiers were Marlene Weingartner of Germany, Tina Pisnik of Slovenia, Jana Nejedly of Canada, Janet Lee, Sonya Jeyaseelan of Canada, Alina Jidkova of Russia, Brie Rippner and Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica. Irvin, a sophomore at Stanford, had to play both of her qualifying matches Thursday because of bad weather Wednesday.

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Indian Wells Tennis Master Series

Main-draw play begins today for the women, Monday for the men.

* Surface: Hard court.

* Prize money: Combined $4.45 million, $2 million (women), $2.45 million (men).

* Defending champions: Serena Williams and Mark Philippoussis.

* Finals: Women, March 18; Men, March 19.

Today’s Featured Matches

STADIUM 1

Starting at 10 a.m.

Tara Snyder vs. Amelie Cocheteux, France.

Dominique Van Roost, Belgium vs. Amanda Coetzer, South Africa.

Silvia Farina, Italy vs. Monica Seles.

Jelena Dokic, Australia vs. Silvija Talaja, Croatia.

Note: The top 10 players in the ATP Champions Race are all scheduled to play, as well as nine of the top 10 WTA players. No. 3 Venus Williams is sidelined because of tendinitis in both wrists.