Seles’ Injury Puts Her on Sidelines

Monica Seles’ resurgence last summer in Southern California won’t be repeated. In fact, the chronic foot injury that put her out of the Acura Classic and the JPMorgan Chase Open at Manhattan Beach could raise more questions about her tennis future.

It was not surprising on Friday when Seles pulled out of next week’s tournament at Manhattan Beach. The inflammation of the arch of her right foot began bothering her last month in an early round loss to Lisa Raymond at Stanford, limiting Seles’ mobility and resulting in her return home to Florida.

Last year, a stress fracture of her right foot kept Seles off the tour after Indian Wells until she attempted to play a clay-court event in Madrid, the week before the French Open. The move backfired, and she stayed off the tour until the summer hard-court season in Southern California.

Seles then reached consecutive finals, losing to Venus Williams here and Lindsay Davenport at Manhattan Beach. In those events, at times, she played better than she had in years, defeating Jennifer Capriati, Martina Hingis (twice) and Serena Williams.

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The wild-card entrants for the Manhattan Beach tournament, which starts Sunday, are Jelena Jankovic of Yugoslavia, Elena Bovina of Russia, Shuai Peng of China and Corina Morariu. Morariu, who will face Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian of Switzerland in the first round, will play her first singles match on the tour since being diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia in May 2001. Morariu, 24, played doubles with Kimberly Po-Messerli at Carlsbad on Monday, losing in the first round to Chanda Rubin and Meghann Shaughnessy.

In the Manhattan Beach doubles field is Martina Navratilova, who will team with Liezel Huber of South Africa. In singles, Wimbledon and French Open champion Serena Williams is seeded No. 1, followed by Jennifer Capriati, defending champion Lindsay Davenport, Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia, Kim Clijsters of Belgium and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.

If form holds, Williams would meet Dokic in the semifinals, and Capriati would face Davenport. Dokic would have to get past Clijsters in the quarterfinals, and Davenport could play Hantuchova in that round.

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Thursday’s fund-raising dinner for the Aspen-based Silver Lining Foundation, run by former tennis pro Andrea Jaeger, raised $191,127, according to organizers. The dollar figure jumped up by $5,000 when an individual wrote a check on Friday, tournament officials said. Among the tennis players attending were Dokic, Clijsters and Capriati. One of the purchasers was Stefano Capriati, the father and coach of Jennifer, who paid $2,300 for a poster of his daughter.