TENNIS ROUNDUP : Seles Declares Herself a U.S. Open Entrant

Maybe she will be seeded, or perhaps given a ranking that would put her into the main draw, or she could be granted a wild card. Nobody knows how Monica Seles will be treated in the U.S. Open, but one thing is known: She will play.

On Friday, Seles entered the tournament she won in 1991 and 1992, then skipped the next two years while recovering from physical and psychological wounds.

“We couldn’t be happier,” said Page Crosland, director of communications for the U.S. Tennis Assn. “We were anticipating it. We’ve been waiting for her, and we’re delighted.”

Seles, 21, won eight Grand Slam tournament titles before she was stabbed on court in Hamburg, Germany, on April 30, 1993. She left tennis as No. 1, but a proposal to co-rank her again at No. 1 and give her special ranking considerations was rejected by several top players, despite support for it by WTA Tour President Martina Navratilova.

Seles, who dropped off the rankings entirely on Feb. 14, 1994, will play Navratilova in an exhibition match July 29 in Atlantic City, N.J.

If Seles plays one or two tournaments before the Open, and does well, she would immediately attain a ranking.

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Defending champion David Wheaton cruised into the semifinals of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, R.I., with a workmanlike 6-3, 6-2 victory over unseeded Laurence Tieleman. Wheaton, who is top-seeded, will play No. 4 Byron Black, who defeated Chris Wilkinson, 6-7 (9-11), 6-4, 6-0. The other semifinal has sixth-seeded David Prinosil, an upset winner over third-seeded Todd Woodbridge, playing unseeded Derrick Rostagno.

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Defending champion Sergei Bruguera beat fellow Spaniard Javier Sanchez, 7-5, 6-1, to advance to the semifinals of the Swiss Open in Gstaad. Bruguera, ranked 11th in the world, will play seventh-ranked Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia in the semifinals. The other semifinal will match Marc Rosset against fellow Swiss Jakob Hlasek.

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Kris Goossens of Belgium upset seventh-seeded Marc Goellner of Germany, 6-4, 6-3, to reach the semifinals of the Swedish Open in Bastad. Goossens will play sixth-seeded Christian Ruud of Norway in the semifinals. Fifth-seeded Carlos Costa will face Fernando Meligeni, an Argentine-born Brazilian, in the other semifinal.

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Seventh-seeded Natalia Medvedeva of Ukraine upset top-seeded Karina Hasbudova of Slovakia, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, to reach the semifinals of the Palermo Grand Prix clay-court tournament in Sicily. Medvedeva will face fifth-seeded Sabine Hack of Germany, and Barbara Schett of Australia will play the winner of the final quarterfinal between No. 2 Irina Spirlea of Romania and No. 6 Silvia Farina of Italy.

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Greg Rusedski, the Canadian-turned-Brit who became a hero at Wimbledon by making it to the fourth round, helped Britain to a 2-0 lead in a Davis Cup relegation match against Monaco in Eastbourne, England.

Rusedski served 20 aces in beating Christophe Boggetti, 6-2, 6-2, 7-5 (7-5), in the opening singles match of the Euro-Africa Zone division two playoff.

Britain’s other victory came from Tin Henman, who also made a name for himself at Wimbledon when he was defaulted during a doubles match for slamming a ball into a ballgirl’s head.

Henman gave Britain a 2-0 lead when he beat Monaco’s leading player, 924th-ranked Sebastien Graeff, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2.

In other Davis Cup matches, Luxembourg’s Johny Goudenbour overpowered Nigeria’s Emmanuel Udozorh, 6-1, 6-0, 6-4, giving his country a 1-0 lead in a Euro-African zone qualifier at Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; and Kim Tiilikainen and Tuomas Ketola won opening singles in straight sets to give Finland a 2-0 lead over Ghana at Tampere, Finland.

Poland and Lithuania split their singles matches at Vilnius; Egypt and Slovakia also split singles matches, when Slovakia’s Jan Kroslak withdrew because of muscle strain in Cairo; Vladimir Voltchkov and Alexander Shvets won singles matches to put Belarus ahead, 2-0, over Estonia at Minsk, and Ukrainian Andre Rybalko and Latvian Armand Strombachs swept their opponents in three sets for a 1-1 tie in Jurmala, Latvia.