Seles’ Game Is Silent but Effective in 6-1, 6-0 Victory Over Keller

NEW YORK —  It took Monica Seles 45 minutes to blast her way to victory Monday in the first round of the U.S. Open and about as long to explain how she did it without grunting.

Seles was quiet as a mouse while dismantling Audra Keller, 6-1, 6-0. Keller basically handed Seles the match with 33 unforced errors, which meant Seles had to hit only eight winners.

Despite the margin of her victory, Seles wasn’t going to get off without being asked about the great grunting controversy left over from her loss to Steffi Graf in the Wimbledon final.

Graf needed only 42 minutes to rout Halle Cioffi, 6-0, 6-2, Monday.

Seles did not grunt in the match against Graf or in her two subsequent tournaments. And since then, she has lost consecutive finals to Martina Navratilova at Manhattan Beach and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in Montreal.

“As I said, I don’t think I am grunting or I am not grunting. That is not what is affecting my game at all,” Seles said, admitting to playing far off her usual form.

The reasons range from the ankle she twisted against Sanchez Vicario in the semifinals of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles before playing Navratilova to nothing more than a slump.

“I don’t think I was playing (as) well as I should have, but it doesn’t matter,” Seles said. “You can’t have ideal preparation for the Open. You will win some and you will lose some.

“You can’t take it seriously. It has been part of my game. I told myself, basically after Wimbledon, ‘if you do it, that is great, Monica. If you don’t do it, that is great.’ ”