FOR the first time in years defending champion Steffi Graf will not start the French Open as the top seed, but the German, fighting her way back after a long injury break, says she has other things to worry about.

"I wish I could only worry about that," Graf, second to Swiss teenager Martina Hingis in the world rankings, said yesterday.

"My ranking is not even on my mind. I have to concentrate on how I've been playing lately and on how I will be playing in the next few weeks."

Graf's fitness is one of the big question marks before the Grand Slam tournament starting today, even though her confidence has been boosted by victory in Saturday's Strasbourg tournament final.

Graf made her comeback in the German Open in Berlin the previous week after a three-month lay-off with a knee injury, but her run ended in the quarter-finals when she was bundled out by Amanda Coetzer of South Africa.

"I'm slowly getting into the rhythm again, but I certainly would have needed more time to be fully fit," she said. "There are certain periods during which I play really well, then I have some lapses in between, which means my concentration is not there all the time.

"Another problem is that I need to strengthen my muscles. There's still quite a big difference in the way the muscles are defined between the right and the left leg."

Hingis is also coming back after a knee injury, but hers was not quite as bad.

"I know she had to stop playing for a few weeks but she will still be a major threat," Graf, who has won the French Open five times, said.

Everybody will be looking for a final showdown between Graf and Hingis, who ousted her from the top of the rankings in March.

Graf believes that the 100th year of the women's competition in Paris could provide the next step towards world domination for Martini Hingis.

The 16-year-old Swiss star succeeded Graf as world number one after beating her at the first Grand Slam event of the year, the Australian Open, and is at the leading edge of the new generation threatening to overshadow more familiar faces.

Only three different players have won the women's title at Roland Garros over the last 10 years, with Graf successful five times, Monica Seles three times and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, last year's beaten finalist, twice the champion.

But all that could be about to change with top seed Hingis ahead of other rising stars, such as America's Venus Williams, also 16, and 15-year-old Russian Anna Kournikova.

Second seed Graf, 27, admits she has not enjoyed anything like the preparation she would have liked.

She suffered the worst defeat of her career, 6-0 6-1, to Amanda Coetzer in Berlin, but beat the South African in three sets this week en route to winning the title in Strasbourg.

"I wish I had more time to prepare," said Graf, whose first-round opponent at the Open will be Argentina's Paola Suarez.

However, it has not been all plain sailing for Hingis, the youngest ever number one, despite winning all 32 tournament matches she has played so far this year.

Her fortunes depend on how she has recovered from the knee surgery she underwent after falling off a horse on April 21st.

She hasn't played a competitive match since April 6th, but is undeterred by the accident and said she might even go horse riding again during the Open.

"I just can't wait to start playing again," she said. "I was starting to miss tennis. This is one of my favourite tournaments and I'm certainly looking forward to it."

Hingis could meet Kournikova in the third round.

Williams, who is being touted as the next great American champion, is on course for a third-round clash with Seles, while the best home hope is Mary Pierce, who should beat Tatiana Panova in today's first round.

Sadly, spectators won't get to see the sport's latest teen sensation, 15-year-old Mirjana Lucic of Croatia, at the French Open this year.

Lucic asked for a wild card into the French Open, but she was turned down by organisers, who refused to bend the WTA's recent age limit restrictions.

World number one Pete Sampras sets out to become the first player to complete a clean sweep of all the grand slam tournaments since Rod Laver in 1969 when he begins his eighth French Open today.

The top seed is suffering from poor form - he hasn't won on clay since last year's French Open - but will be heartened to hear reigning champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov admit defeat before the first ball has been served.

The 23-year-old Russian, who has been struggling to recapture his form after fracturing a knuckle three months ago, opens his defence against Martin Damm of the Czech Republic.

But the 6 ft 3 in Kafelnikov, who beat Sampras in last year's semi-final, is clearly not confident of retaining his crown.

"It's going to take a miracle to do that," he said. "It's almost like trying to start a new career."

Sampras faces an awkward test in his opening game against Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, who has beaten him in their two previous meetings on clay.

Kafelnikov added: "I'm sure Pete Sampras will be a favourite but clay isn't his favourite surface and he's never been further than the semi-final last year. I'm afraid I don't think he can do it."

Instead, the current champion fancies the chances of former title-holder Thomas Muster, who faces Germany's Marc-Kevin Goellner in his first game today.

The Austrian has slumped to six clay-court defeats this season, but Kafelnikov said: "Even though he hasn't had such good results recently, I have to rate Thomas' chances of winning again like he did in 1995 as very good."

Meanwhile another of the leading contenders for the title and one of six seeded Spaniards, Alex Corretja, starts his Open campaign against Morocco's Karim Alami.

British number one Tim Henman must overcome a recent slump in form following injury when he meets Frenchman Olivier Delaitre, ranked 143 in the world, in the first round today.