PARIS. Dec 31 (AFP): It was the year Steffi Grafs reign was supposed to end.
Monica Seles was back and looking Increasingly mena-
The victory stretched Seles' unbeaten record at the event, which she had also won in 1991. 1992 and 1993, to 28 matches — but it also brought
cing. Croatia's Iva Majoli and Chanda Rubin of the United States were fast improving.
Former 'golden girl' Jennifer t. apriati was planning to return and Switzerland's teenage prodigy Martina Hingis was waiting impatiently in the wings.
But despite renewed injury problems and continual anxiety over her imprisoned father, Graf completed 1996 as world number one for the fourth year running.
Another incredible season brought three more Grand Slam titles with triumphs at the French Open. Wimbledon and the US Open and a fifth seasonending WTA Championship crown.
In all the 27-year-old German won 54 of the 59 matches she played, and she really lost only three times — to Japan's Kimiko Date. Lindsay Davenport of the United States and Hingis.
Her other two "defeats" came When she was fpreed to retire because of injury — first against compatriot Anke Huber in Leipzig where she aggravated a knee strain, and then against Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic in Philadelphia when chronic back trouble came back to haunt her.
It was ah astonishing season.
Graf herself admitted: "Obviously. I'm thrilled with the results especially after all the problems I've had to contend with tliis year. But I'm probably more surprised than anyone else at what I have achieved."
Claiming she had never had specific goals or ambitions, or a sense of history. Graf said that "just a pure love of tennis" kept her going.
"My motivation is still really high and it is still a pleasure to play." she said simply.
At the start of the year Graf found herself sitting things out and convalescing from an operation on her foot while Seles basked in the limelight after notching up her fourth Australian Open triumph.
The Yugoslav-born American left-hander, playing in Just her fourth tournament after spending 28 months away from tennis alter being stabbed on court in Hamburg in 1993. defeated Huber in straight-sets to win the ninth Grand Slam title of her career.
her a shoulder injury which was to stay with her for the rest of the season.
Seles was left with a choice. Either she could undergo surgery and take up to four months off— or she could gamtile on getting through the year using painkillers.
In an Olympic year and spurred on by the burning am-
bition to match Grafs golden' Grand Slam of 1998. Seles choose the second course of action.
But by the end of the year she was bitterly regretting her decision.
At the French Open she went out in straight sets in the quarter finals to Novotna while her Wimbledon dream turned into a nightmare when she was beaten in three sets in the second round by 23-year-old Katarina Studenikova of Slovakia.
Olympic failure was followed by a straight-sets defeat in die United States Open final against Graf and first-round retirement from the WTA Championships because of renewed shoulder pain.
And if all that wasn't bad enough she was the victim of a freak accident in training Just before Christmas — breaking a linger on her right hand while catching a ball — an injury Which put her participation in January's Australian Open in the balance.
Chanda Rubin's promise carried over from 1995. The 19-yeaf-old black American reached the semifinal at the Australian Open and gave Seles her toughest tournament test by coming to within just two points of victory and lead-
ing 5-3 in the third set.
But Rubin's hopes of continuing her climb up the rankings came to an abrupt halt when her season was disrupted by a
serious wrist injury which kept her out of Wimbledon, the Olympics and the Fed Cup.
A superb five-set final against Graf at the WTA Championships at Madison Square Garden, her first two WTA titles at Filderstadt and Oakland, a historic first Grand Slam (doubles) title at Wimbledon and a career-high fourth elace in the rankings were the ighlights of Martina Hingis