Roaring Back : In Return, Seles Can’t Start Quietly

WIMBLEDON, England — Monica Seles made her long-awaited return to Wimbledon on Monday, but she didn’t come quietly.

Seles, who created a major stir when she skipped Wimbledon last year, couldn’t manage to top herself in the controversy department, but she tried.

Actually, Seles didn’t have to try very hard--the London tabloids did it for her. Seles walked onto Court 1 for her first-round match against Jenny Byrne having read newspaper accounts that said she had been warned to tone down her grunting on the court.

Apparently unnerved by these reports, Seles rushed past Byrne, 6-2, 6-2, in 51 minutes on Court 1, where the Daily Express posted a reporter with a machine to record the decibel level of her grunts.

The last time she played here two years ago, the Express used the same machine and reported that the sound measured somewhere between a jackhammer and a locomotive.

According to unofficial results, Seles failed to measure up to her previous level.

She said the grunting has been over-amplified, anyway.

“There’s some comments that some player said, I always really ask them or somebody directly, and they never say the same thing,” Seles said. “They always say it’s put totally out of context. They put together sentences of many interviews and take them out and it comes out that they want to put something between the two players. . . .

“I don’t think I’m doing it on purpose or anything like that, and a lot of other players--I think Jimmy Connors has done it for so many years. . . . I don’t think it’s bothering any players.”

Seles seemed to think she had put an end to the grunting issue, which means the tabloids are going to have to look for a new subject for Seles.

Her hair is considered a possibility, especially since she recently changed it from blonde to black, prompting one tabloid to run a series of pictures of Seles’ changing hair color under the headline: Dyeing to Win.