Champion's raw emotion

MONICA SELES'S victory in the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday should have marked the moment when her rehabilitation from past trauma was complete. But the tears she shed at the press conference that followed her 6-4 6-1 defeat of Anke Huber showed how much longer it takes for the mind to heal than the body.

Seles had been dealing with questions in her usual breathless, giggly manner when she was asked about the possibility of returning to play in Germany, where in 1993, at a tournament in Hamburg, she suffered the knife attack that put her out of tennis for over two years.

Losing her composure, she said: "It's very hard to go back and feel safe again. I don't know. I mean, whatever happened there has not been fair. I don't want to think about that." After suggesting to photographers that they should not be taking pictures of her weeping, she got up and left the room, leaving her winner's trophy behind.

The "not fair'' remark refers to the two-year suspended prison sentence imposed on her assailant, Gunther Parche, and there is little doubt that Seles's mental state has not been eased by what she sees as inexplicable leniency on the part of the German court.

It was a poignant footnote to another memorable chapter in the career of the 22-year-old Yugoslav-born American. This was her first Grand Slam victory since returning to action last summer, and her ninth in total. Seles has now won eight of the last 10 Grand Slams that she has entered, and with a remarkable record of four wins out of four appearances she has made the Australian Open her own.

While the absence from Flinders Park of the injured Steffi Graf certainly smoothed Seles's path to the final, her success was no formality. Plagued by injuries herself, she recovered from 5-1 down in the third set to beat Chanda Rubin in the semi-final, and Huber also tested her.

The 21-year-old German, playing in her first Grand Slam final, broke Seles to lead 3-2 in the first set, and in a sixth game that lasted 14 minutes had no fewer than nine points on her own serve to move 4-2 ahead. But Seles broke back to level the score at 3-3 and from then on, her weight of shot proved decisive.

Stefan Edberg, who is retiring this year, bade farewell to the tournament where he was twice singles champion by winning the men's doubles final yesterday with his Czech parter, Petr Korda.

Bud Collins, page 30