CONNORS MATCH TURNS SELES OFF

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 7, 1992                   TAG: 9202070185
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
CONNORS MATCH TURNS SELES OFF
Monica Seles, the world's top-ranked female tennis player, said Thursday that she would refuse Jimmy Connors' dare to put up $1 million to play him in a winner-take-all "battle of the sexes."
Seles said she could beat Connors without a handicap.
"The money is not important," said the 18-year-old from Yugoslavia, but she doubted such a bet would be legal.
Connors, 39, is 21 years older than Seles, and his best tennis years are behind him, while Seles has her No. 1 world ranking to protect.
Big-time tennis occasionally has seen such "battles of the sexes," and rumors of a duel between Connors and Seles have been around for months. A Beverly Hills company, Destiny Productions, is trying to arrange a March date in Las Vegas.
Connors said this week in Atlanta he would put up a check for $1 million and Seles should do the same.
Seles said such a match would produce only "one day of headlines" but might cost her the No. 1 ranking since she would have to leave competition and train to play Connors.
Seles is in Essen, Germany, for the Nokia Women's tournament, where she defeated Angela Kerek 6-2, 6-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Seles will play eighth-seeded Catarina Lindqvist of Sweden. Lindqvist beat Catherine Tanvier of France 6-1, 6-4.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB