SELES STILL ZEALOUS THROUGH IT ALL, HER LOVE OF TENNIS REMAINS.

Byline: Ramona Shelburne Staff Writer

At 28, Monica Seles has crossed the imaginary age barrier that leads to questions about retirement. She already has been the best women's tennis player in the world and already is a millionaire several times over.

But the perfect time to look back on a fine career and move on to the next stage in life? Not a chance.

Seles, perhaps slowed but still passionate, has no plans to call it quits in the immediate future. She even has designs on at least one more Grand Slam title.

The one-time teenage prodigy hasn't dominated women's tennis as she did before she was stabbed at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, in 1993, and missed 27 months. However, she has consistently been ranked in the top 10 since her return in 1995.

And if she never again reaches the top, she'll have no regrets. Seles is enjoying her career as much as ever and will stick around until that changes.

``You look at what the press says, that you're old and washed up when you're 25 or 26,'' said Seles, currently ranked No. 7 and seeded sixth in the Women's Tennis Championships beginning Wednesday at Staples Center. ``It's not as bad as gymnastics, but it's almost getting to be like that. But I think I'll play max, another two years, like at 30 I'm going to stop. But who knows, if I go to Australia in January and I'm just like, `Gosh, this is not what I want to be doing,' then I'm going to stop. There's no pressure there.

``I'd love to win a Grand Slam before my career is over. But it's not the only thing. If I don't win another one, it's not like I won't be happy with my career.''

The Women's Tennis Championships will be her first tournament since September. She has been rehabilitating a stress reaction in her right foot that has hampered her since April.

Before that, Seles was having one of her best seasons since she became the youngest No. 1 player at 17 in March of 1991. After she beat Venus Williams in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in February - ending Williams' victory streak at 24 matches - Seles reached the semifinals or better in the first five events of 2002.

Her rivals took notice.

``For Monica, I think it would be hard to stop because she's always finished so high, she always has these great years, she wins titles and she's always kind of giving herself a chance at the Slams,'' said close friend Lindsay Davenport, who will be Seles' first-round opponent Wednesday night.

``You should keep playing if you're able to stay up there. I think it's tougher if you're up there and then you fall and then you're barely ranked 50th. But (Monica) still hits the ball better than anybody, she hits amazing shots and she returns so well. Her game is a great game.

``I haven't played her this year but it seems like she always beats the players she's supposed to beat and is always in the quarters and the semis and the finals of all the tournaments.''

That Seles is able to play at that level is remarkable considering that for two years and three months, at the peak of her career, she did not even pick up a tennis racket.

Seles was only 19 when 38-year-old German Gunther Parche jumped onto the court and plunged a 9-inch boning knife between her shoulder blades during a changeover in her quarterfinal match against Magdalena Maleeva at the Citizen Cup Tournament on April 30, 1993.

At the time, Seles had been the most dominating player in women's tennis for two years. She had already won eight of the 14 Grand Slam tournaments in which she had played. In 1991, on her way to the No. 1 ranking, Seles reached the final of every event she entered and won all three Grand Slams she entered. In 1992, she repeated as champion of the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens and compiled a 70-5 match record.

Parche said later he had not intended to kill Seles, merely to injure her so that Steffi Graf could regain the No. 1 ranking. But had Seles not been bending down when Parche stabbed her, doctors said he could have killed her because the knife narrowly missed the spinal area.

Parche didn't spend a day in prison for the attack and Seles remains deeply hurt by that. The judge in the case, Elke Bosse, gave Parche a suspended two-year sentence based partly on the testimony of a psychiatrist who said he had a highly abnormal personality.

Since the ruling, Seles has decided not to play in Germany again.

``I just never wanted to come back when they never punished the guy, he never spent a day in jail,'' she said. ``I was really hurt about that. But then I realized I loved the game way too much. I really think my dad (Karolj) helped me to see that you gotta do what you love.''

In her first event back, in August 1995, Seles - who retained her No. 1 ranking because of the unusual circumstances - won the 1995 Canadian Open as a wild card. Next, she reached the final of the U.S. Open as a No. 2 seed before losing to Graf 7-6, 0-6, 6-3.

Seles remained No. 1 until November 1996. Since then, her best finish in a Grand Slam was an appearance in the 1998 French Open final.

The two years she sat out are forever gone and Seles is left to wonder how many Grand Slams she might've won during that time. But as horrible as the incident was, Seles has taken something positive from it.

``It's a Catch-22, but in the long run it definitely helped me to see that there is life outside of tennis,'' Seles said. ``In those two years, I could finally spend time with kids my own age and do stuff. If I wanted to go skiing, I didn't have to worry about breaking a finger or breaking my leg. I stayed out in Vail (Colo.) and Lake Tahoe and, really, I just lived like a normal life. It was so good.

``Since I was probably 8 years old, I'd never spent more than two months at my house, so it was nice.''

Seles allows herself to think about what life will be like without the game she has loved since she began playing with her father on a parking lot in Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, an autonomous province in the former Yugoslavia claimed by Serbia.

And she feels good about it.

``Oh yeah, I let myself think about it,'' Seles said, laughing. ``I'm kind of looking forward to it because it will really be the first time I'll have a normal life. Another part of me is definitely like, `What am I going to do?', because I've played tennis for so long and I've always been so focused on it.

``I'm just trying to explore a few other things. I feel like a lot of my friends went through this, not at 28, but when they were like 22. I don't know what I want to do, but I think I have a lot of time to figure that out. But I don't think my transition will be too difficult.

``I just think it will be difficult to find something that I love as much as I love tennis.''

WTA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Where: Staples Center

When: Wednesday-Monday

What: The top 16 singles players and top eight doubles teams will compete for $3,000,000 in prize money.

TV: ESPN, ESPN2

Tickets: Call [phone] or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Monica Seles, who will play in the Women's Tennis Championships at Staples Center, hopes for one more Grand Slam title before she's through.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

(2) Monica Seles is the sixth seed and will face Lindsay Davenport in a first-round match Wednesday night at Staples Center.

Bob Child/Associated Press

Box:

WTA CHAMPIONSHIPS (see text)