FRANKFORT. Oct 9: Tennis star Steffi Graf, who is under investigation for tax evasion, fa-ces no immediate arrest, a prosecutor In the case said Monday, report agencies.

Mannheim state prosecutor Peter Wechsung said nothing had changed since Graf underwent lengthy questioning last Thursday, and there was no reason to arrest her at the present time, contrary to statements published in Monday's issue of Der Spiegel magazine.

A spokesman for Mannheim district court judge Helmut Bauer also denied Monday that Bauer had told Spiegel that "another application for an arrest warrant" could be coming soon.

The prosecutor's office still considers Graf suspect in the case, which claims Grafs father and manager. Peter Graf, allegedly failed to report some 50 million marks (35.2 million dollars) of his daughter's earnings over several years.

Peter Graf and family tax adviser Joachim Eckardt are both in custody.

Steffi Grafs lawyer. Peter Danckert. also said there was no reason for his client to be arrested.

Danckert told SAT-1 television station Graf had been in Germany since the end of the US Open one month ago. and there was no danger that she would flee abroad.

The Mannheim justice department regards Steffi Graf as an "accomplice" to her father, the German

weekly Der Spiegel claims in a report to be published today.

The magazine quotes a document from the department investigating Grafs financial affairs that lists her as an "accomplice".

It adds the German Tennis Federation (DTB) had not declared Graf prizemoney earned in domestic tournaments.

Grafs father Peter has been detained since August 2 while Inquiries continue.

Meanwhile, due to the caught in a tangled web of tax evasion allegations. Graf faces loss of her million dollar contract with Opel, the German car-making subsidiary of General Motors, said Sunday.

Opel supervisory board member, Hans Wilhelm Gaeb. who is also head of General Motors Europe, said Steffi Grafs sponsorship contract would expire soon. It was worth an estimated 1.5 million marks (1 million dollars) annually.

"The four-year contract runs out at the end of the year, and the conditions to extend it don't exist at the moment." Gaeb told the German sports news agency SID.

Gaeb also said that his comments in an Interview with the Munich-based Focus magazine, concerning Steffi Grafs ties with the US-based marketing firm Advantage International, and Its manager Philip de Plcciotto's, remain Opel's policy.

In the interview Gaeb.

challenged Picciotto to prove that he wasn't tied in with manipulation of sponsor funds and illegal money transfers to avoid taxes.

Gaeb also said that comments in a radio interview Sunday by Opel chairman of the board. David Herman. „who said he saw no reason to break with Steffi Graf, were made before Herman, who had Just returned from a business trip, was brought up to date on the latest developments.

Gaeb told Focus he suspects Picciotto was involved in questionable transfers of millions of marks (millions of dollars) in sponsor payments. He also hinted It was done without Steffi Grafs knowledge.