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Seles keen to get on court
By Daryl Fenemor
Dec 17, 2004

Women's tennis legend Monica Seles will use the two exhibition
matches against Martina Navrátilová in Auckland and Christchurch in
February as a build up to her return to the WTA Tour.

Seles has not played competitively since the 2003 French Open as she
has battled with a foot injury, but the matches against Navrátilová
will help her gage how close she is to a return to top competition.

"This is going to be a great test for me," Seles told the phone
conference on Friday. "I've been hitting for some time but it's
always different when you play a match. There's no better way to try
it than playing against Martina, as she was the one I played against
in my first comeback.

"It's going to gage where my game is. It's going to tell a lot about
how my foot holds up. Then I'll probably want another month's
practice and then hopefully be ready in about March or April."

Seles has won 53 tournament singles titles but is very excited about
the prospect of playing the exhibition matches as she has never been
to New Zealand and is also bringing her mother along.

"It's so exciting to come to New Zealand because I've never been
there and I've heard how beautiful it is and checked it out now that
I know I'm coming, on the website and just making a list of stuff I
want to do and see and definitely want to sea kayak."

She also mentioned the possibility of a bungy jump, which would be
more a test of her nerve than her foot.

The 31-year old has a slight upper hand in the history of matches
against Navrátilová and she says they are both very competitive
players who will take the matches seriously.

"We count them when we play in the back yard," Seles said as the two
are now nearly neighbours in Florida and often hit together. "We're
just competitive, I guess it's part of your blood."

The injury break was frustrating for Seles but it has not quelled
her hunger to compete at the top level and has given her the
opportunity to work on more of her overall fitness.

"The good thing was that it has definitely made me do tons of stuff
off court which I probably should have done a lot earlier in my
career but I'm definitely probably in one of the best shapes, if
not, by shape and my fitness, in a long, long, long time."

Seles says she will give herself six months back on the tour to try
and prove she can still compete with the best but even if she can't
she is happy with what she has achieved in the sport.

"If my time comes and my career is over then that's fantastic I had
a wonderful career, but if I can eek out just a little bit more to
at least finish on a happy term instead of playing in pain like I
have the last few months that would be great."

Seles will play Navrátilová in two exhibition matches at the ASB
Tennis Centre in Auckland on February 1 and Christchurch's Westpac
Centre on February 3.

And for those that are interested she is pretty sure she still
grunts but she says she never realises she is doing it.

Source: ONE Sport
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--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/selesians/