TENNIS REPORT

Graf eyes return by year's end

Steffi Graf, sidelined for Wimbledon but making a strong recovery from knee surgery, expects to return to competition near the end of the year.

"I'm now doing very well," she said. "Directly after (the operation) it was a bit difficult. Now I can move without pain."

Graf told Sunny, a German weekly newspaper, that she hopes to resume tennis in the late fall and compete in an exhibition tournament in Frankfurt in early December.

Graf, who has won Wimbledon seven times but was unable to defend her title this year, had major knee surgery June 10 in Austria.

"Every day it's going better," said Dr. Reinhard Weinstabl, who operated on the 28-year-old German. "... She can now nearly make it without a brace on her knee."

Graf says she's looking forward to next season.

"My main goal is to be fit and to win the Grand Slam tournaments in 1998," she said. "That is my personal goal and naturally a certain amount of ambition goes with that."

Graf's new sports promotion agency, Steffi Graf Sport GmbH, is organizing this weekend's Fed Cup between Croatia and Germany in Frankfurt. Promotional work in tennis and other areas figure to be part of her plans when she retires from tennis.

"The adjustment will certainly not be very easy and the alternatives have to develop slowly. I won't drop into a hole," Graf said. "My activities will certainly be in my areas of interest, for instance art and music."

Graf out 4-6 months after surgery

Steffi Graf, once the peerless champion of women's tennis, could be done as a top player, her career in danger following knee surgery.

The surgeon who operated on her left knee -- a procedure that will sideline her four to six months -- said there is no guarantee she can resume playing on the tour.

"That is certainly our aim," Dr. Reinhard Weinstabl told The Associated Press by telephone. "Whether that aim can be reached one cannot say now."

Weinstabl said on Thursday that a comeback is not out of the question.

"She has always said she wants above all else to play again. She can do it, but it will need all her strength, self-discipline and toughness," he said.

Weinstabl, who repaired damaged tendon and cartilage in Graf's left knee, said the operation had become unavoidable.

"The kneecap was already displaced to such an extent that she would soon have had problems even just with walking," he said, adding that the fact that the injury was an old one could lengthen the recovery process.

Graf, winner of 21 Grand Slam events, underwent two hours of surgery Tuesday to repair cartilage and tendon damage.

She will definitely miss the next two Grand Slam events, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, in which she is the defending champion in both, and could be out for the year.

Graf, who will be 28 Saturday, released a statement after the operation saying she was "confident that I will return to the sport which I love so much -- and in good health."

However, Weinstabl was less certain about such prospects. He said the German star's long history of problems with her left knee complicated her recovery. Graf was out three months earlier this year after arthroscopic surgery on the knee.

She was transferred Wednesday from a private clinic in Vienna to a rehabilitation center at Gars am Kamp. The center, where Graf will face weeks of therapy, is used by prominent Austrian and foreign athletes, politicians and actors.

Weinstabl said Graf will return often during her rehab to the Wiener Privatklinik, the private hospital where he operated on her.

Weinstabl said all postoperative measures are "nothing but an attempt to restore (Graf's health) in an optimal way. Whether this will succeed one cannot yet say. ... A first step has been made."

The operation came less than a week after Graf lost 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the French Open to Amanda Coetzer, who also defeated her in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

It marked the first time since 1986 that Graf has failed to reach at least the semifinals at the French, a tournament she has won five times, and the first time since 1985 she has lost so early in consecutive Grand Slams.

Against Coetzer, Graf committed an astonishing 64 unforced errors, accounting for all but 14 of the points won by her opponent.

"It's just the state I'm in at the moment," she said after the loss. "I don't seem to have any self-confidence when I go out there."

She said she was unsure of her shots and uncomfortable with her game.

"I think anybody's career you go through stages. I've been in it a few times, too. It's going to take a while to get it back."

In Germany, some news reports speculated that the operation and layoff could mean the end of Graf's career.

Germany's mass circulation Bild newspaper calculated on Thursday that Graf had suffered over 60 injuries and illnesses in her career.

Under the headline "Steffi's Poor Old Body," the paper said Graf's injuries included broken fingers and toes, a torn shoulder, pulled upper thigh muscles, several dislocated back vertebrae and ripped stomach muscle fiber.

"Steffi Serious Operation -- No more tennis?" said the front-page headline in the mass-circulation Bild Zeitgung.

But the German Olympic team and tennis federation doctor, Joseph Keul, said Graf should make a full recovery.

"It is a sign of wear and tear, that however by no means has to mean the end of a career," he said. "I think that Steffi Graf will be 100 percent again by the end of the year."

Even if she does return, Graf will have a long hill to climb to return to the top. She dropped to No. 3 in the WTA rankings after her quarterfinal loss in Paris, her lowest ranking since 1986.

Missing Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the season-ending Chase Championships in New York would mean that Graf would probably drop to between 15 and 20 in the rankings.

The last time Graf went a year without winning a Grand Slam title was in 1986 and her lowest world ranking was No. 22 at the end of 1984, just as she was starting her career.