Steffi Graf Sees Retirement By Age 30 -- Tennis In Next Century Not On Star's Timetable

George Burns once thought he couldn't go back on stage without Gracie by his side. Richard Nixon had hundreds of standing eight counts before he was knocked out. Sinatra was once thought to be dead. So was Elvis.

Cultural history is rife with Grateful Dead, who must gig in order to be. These people know that it is one thing to have topped the Billboard charts 30 years ago, and another to have a live date the Voodoo Lounge the day after tomorrow.

Sports, in particular, is rife with - how shall we put this? - resilient types. Bob Cousy came back when he was 42. Muhammad Ali came back, back, back. Goose Gossage has removed his uniform for all eight baseball strikes/lockouts. And he still expects to get the next call from the bullpen.

It's the gig. The game. The ink. The fans. The cheers. The competition. The lifestyle. The base nature of human insecurity?

Whatever. Some must go on and on, hitting and throwing, passing and catching. They will only leave kicking and screaming.

Steffi Graf, intermittently the most dominant female tennis player of her generation, has thought about all of this. And she has said she doesn't envision playing past her 30th birthday, which will occur on June 14, 1999.

Graf, 25, says her view of retirement, "doesn't really have to do with (whether) I'm dominating, (whether) I'm No. 1 (or) whatever ranking I have. That has nothing to do with it. I've pretty much set myself a timetable and I have said for sure I won't be around when I'm 30 - but I don't want to say for sure how far away. I am not ready to talk about it."

Graf has great admiration for Martina Navratilova. Graf also says she won't be hanging around to capture anyone's imagination by merely making it to a Grand Slam final.

But haven't others, plenty of others, said the same thing? Doesn't everyone come back, or try to stay forever? Like Bjorn Borg? Or Jimmy Connors?

Can Graf be any different than the rest of them?

She says she can.

It has been 16 months since a knife-wielding factory worker slithered down from the stands and stabbed then-No. 1 Monica Seles during a match in Hamburg, Germany. The madman who assaulted Seles confessed to his motivation: He wanted to unseat Seles and abet Graf's return to No. 1.

Although Seles has healed physically, one must assume the psychological wounds still run deep. She hasn't played a tournament since the incident. She is living a mysterious, hermit-like existence, reportedly in Colorado. Many who play and follow professional tennis doubt Seles will resurface on the circuit.

Graf has gone about her business. What else can she do?

Before Seles' meteoric rise, Graf's career had the ennui of a grassroots political movement. In 1987, around her 18th birthday, she won her first Grand Slam title, the French Open. In 1988, she invented the "Golden Slam": She won all four Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal. She went on to win three Grand Slam titles in 1989.

"I think the most (No. 1) meant to me was the first day . . . " Graf says. "It was a very special day and even the whole week after that it was really special. But after that, I never really had, again, that feeling. I never had these feelings again, these emotions. This has never been the same."

At 20, Graf was a 5-foot-9, 132-pound German sports monument. Her forehand was illegal on the autobahns. Her serve served as the first modern melding of perfect technique and advanced racket technology. And the rest of her game was equally frightening.

Just as it looked as if Graf had an invincible package, along came Seles, who could summon amazing power from every fiber of her skinny, stoop-shouldered body. If Graf's career had the force of a grassroots political movement, Seles became the one, hot, young issue that could keep Graf from the highest office.

Although Graf defended her Wimbledon titles in 1991 and '92 (Seles missed the tournament in '91 and Graf beat her in the '92 final), she would not again dominate until Seles was stabbed in the back.

Instantly, Graf was in the middle of a bizarre scenario. Her name had been summoned by a madman whose goal was to remove her one true rival. Seles was indeed removed, perhaps temporarily, perhaps forever. In Germany, where tennis matches are televised almost nightly, the sports media was whipped into an even greater frenzy. Graf went about her business. Or, tried to. What else could she do?

"I would love to see Monica come back," Graf says. "But I also would love to see her come back at a high level, the way she left the game. It's her decision and, you know, she has to want it and she has to be ready for it, of course."

Graf has gone ahead and assumed the throne with few signs of weakness. In 1993, she won the French, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. She has run her career prize-money total to $14,372,290 and her title count to 86. (Currently, Graf is fourth in career titles behind Navratilova's 167, Chris Evert's 157 and Evonne Goolagong Cawley's 88).

Now, the questions which have gripped women's tennis are these: How long will Steffi play? Will she wait for Monica and renew the rivalry? Can she wait for Monica? If Monica doesn't return, does Steffi have a reason to hang around?

Graf says she can't fixate on these types of questions.

"I don't think (a Seles return) would push me any further because I think I push myself more than enough," Graf says. "I don't think any opponent could make me work more or do more. I think I am pretty much at my limit. I think that the competition (that is there) is enough. Sure, with her it would be even better, but that's not the way it is."

Since she first picked up a (cq)racket at the age of 4, Graf has been pragmatic. Aside from that first great rush she had when she was a kid, she says she has never been caught up in maintaining her No. 1 stature. Nor has she been in a maddened pursuit of amassing millions of dollars, hundreds of titles or scores of Grand Slam victories. To listen to Graf, such goals are ignoble. She is proud that her rise was not meteoric, but steady, and from the bottom of the ranks.

This is a testament to her focus, which has always been on personal improvement.

"If I didn't have anything to work on, it would be boring, wouldn't it?" she says. "But I always know I can play better. That's my motivation."

Graf says her motivation has not waned this year - despite certain difficulties. Eyebrows were raised when she lost to Mary Pierce in the French Open semifinals. That was followed by a shocking, first-round loss to Lori McNeil at Wimbledon . . . and a three-week Florida vacation.

"I think it was very easy for me to step away from tennis," she says. "I don't know if that's a revelation. . . . Even though (tennis) is a big part of my life right now, I think I don't want it to be there all my life. I don't need it to be there all my life."