Exhibition at Auckland, Tuesday 1st February:
- Monica Seles lt. Martina Navrátilová, 6-4 6-4

Exhibition at Christchurch, Thursday 3rd February:
- Monica Seles lt. Martina Navrátilová, 4-6 6-2 6-4

As a faithful Selesian, it's very difficult for me to write about
Monica's inability to beat the best 48-year-old in tennis-history...
in any of three exhibition-matches that they've played last year and
this.

It's clear that Monica is a long way from being ready to return to
the WTA Tour.

I would be very sad if Monica announced her retirement, particularly
as her career feels incomplete without a Wimbledon title.

But it would also be a shame to see Monica return to the tour in a
diminished capacity and lose to the likes of Marlene Weingärtner or
Gisela Dulko in the first round of every tournament. The spirit is
willing but the flesh, sadly, is very weak at the moment.

I don't want Monica to retire OR come back just yet. I want her to
keep training in the hope that she will one day be ready to come
back and do herself justice. It's only in the last month or so that
she's been able to practise without pain, so there's still hope that
things will get better for her.

And in the meantime, is Catalina Castano available to be her
opponent in exhibitions? ;-)

Photos:
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=seles
http://editorial.gettyimages.com/MS_GINS/source/home/home.aspx?pg=1
(search for "seles")

At least Monica /looked/ great. She gets better with age like an old
bottle of Cherry Coke! :-)


At Auckland, Monica had a practice-session with beautiful Marina
Erakovic, who won the Australian Open girls' doubles with Victoria
Azarenka.

16-year-old Erakovic was impressed by the intensity with which
Monica trains, while Monica picked Erakovic as a future top-ten
player as she plays an aggressive all-court game, can hit her
backhand two-handed or sliced, and is hard-working and eager to
learn.

Marina Erakovic is playing ITF Washington this week (where she is
through to the quarter-finals). I wish her well.

--
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/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeldani/