Injured Monica says retirement not out of the question
By Matthew Cronin
Tuesday, May 27, 2003

The upset bug bit former three-time champion Monica Seles on Day Two
at Roland-Garros, when she was blasted out of the tournament by
Russian strongwoman Nadia Petrova 6-4 6-0, the first time she has
lost in the first round of a Grand Slam.

After the match, Seles said that if her chronically bad feet don't
heel, she may very well retire.

"Yeah, it's one of the options for sure," the 29-year-old said. "If
I'm in pain, I'm not going to be playing. But I'm a positive person.
I try not to give up. I've faced worse stuff. This has been a
difficult time off the court the past few weeks [one of her close
friends, IMG owner Mark McCormack, recently passed away]. I don't
know how my body will react to rest. And if it doesn't react well,
then I have to stop."

Seles, who won the title here from 1990-92, suffered perhaps her
worst defeat here. She never looked comfortable on court, as the 20-
year-old Petrova frequently wrong-footed her, brutalized her second
serves and simply out-muscled her in inside-the-baseline rallies.

Seles careened 48 unforced errors to only 25 from her foe, including
12 double faults. The former No1 was broken six times by Petrova, who
also defeated her in Rome two weeks ago when Seles retired with a
foot injury down 3-6 1-4.

"It was just one of those days when I couldn't hit too many balls in
after 4-4," Seles said. "My serve really let me down. But at the same
time, I'm a player who needs to practice to have confidence. I knew
coming in I didn't have it. I was debating playing, but once I
decided to, I gave it my best shot."

The 29-year-old Seles has suffered one stress fracture or another in
her feet the past six years. In her prior 10 appearances in Paris,
she has never lost before the quarter finals. She refuses to undergo
surgery and can merely hope that her feet heal and give her one more
shot at tennis glory.

"Thank God I had a really good year last year," she said. "This
year's been a struggle. I think I do have to give it a break and
reassess what I want to do after my foot responds to it. Because this
way, it's too aggravating for me to practice and play with pain and
my results have not been something that I'm happy about the past few
months."

[from www.rolandgarros.org]