Seles Is Back in Swing With New Racket : Tennis: After long layoff, second-seeded player has no trouble defeating 18-year-old Keller in L.A. tournament.

Since winning the French Open and reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, how much has Monica Seles changed?

Let’s see. Her hair is lighter, her wallet is heavier and her grunt is softer. Other than that, nothing much is different, especially what she does on the court.

Seles, the 16-year-old Yugoslav who lives in Florida, won her first match since Wimbledon, defeating 18-year-old Audra Keller, 6-2, 6-2, Wednesday night in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles at Manhattan Country Club.

In only 61 minutes, the second-seeded Seles won the match and proved she can be a little different and still produce the same result on the court.

Seles swung her racket with two hands from both sides, as usual, only it was a new racket, a Yonex. For what Yonex is paying Seles--an estimated $2.2 million--she would probably play with a frying pan.

But besides the winners she deposits in the corners with it, the racket has one other big feature.

“It’s a very neat color,” Seles said.

“Even though you probably couldn’t see it in the dark, when the sun hits it, it glints, kind of like golden hair,” she said.

So you can see why she chose it. Against Keller, Seles swung hard and found herself engaged in slugging duel. Keller also likes to hit hard and said afterward that she expected more from Seles.

“I expected her to hit harder than she did,” Keller said.

There was no shortage of power, Seles said.

“Oh, I think I hit pretty hard,” she said.

Keller, whose earnings of $35,890 this year fall about $750,000 short of Seles’, also fell short of challenging the No. 3-ranked player. Ranked No. 107, Keller has reached the third round once in 12 tournaments.

All in all, it was just the kind of match Seles wished for, after taking so much time off since Wimbledon. Seles served five aces, two in the eighth game of the second set, no double faults and won 70% of her first-serve points.

“It’s always not the best to have a tough first-round opponent,” Seles said.

Seles, who got her tan vacationing in Monte Carlo and her two-fisted attack learning the game as a pre-teen in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, is aiming to make an impact at the U.S. Open.

To get ready for this year’s final Grand Slam event, Seles is playing this week, then entering a exhibition next week in Philadelphia.

“Still, the U.S. Open is my main goal,” she said. “I’ll be ready. Tracy Austin proved you can do it at age 16.”

Mary Pierce, 15, who was born in Canada, grew up in Florida and lives in France, lost Wednesday to Czechoslovakia’s Jana Novotna, 6-4, 7-5, in a wildly fluctuating second-round match that had 14 service breaks in 22 games.

Nine breaks came in the second set, which Pierce led, 3-1. Novotna, ranked No. 14, appraised Pierce: “I think she is not a bad player, but she is quite inconsistent.”

Pierce took the loss hard, bursting into tears. She was composed in the interview room and said: “The score was (good), but in another sense, I am not very happy because I had my chances to win. It’s too bad.”

But Pierce’s father, sometimes her most severe critic, praised her.

“I kissed her on the cheek and told her she played great, and at the same time I told her she should have hit the backhand down the line,” Jim Pierce said. “She got mad and walked away.”

Mary Pierce, ranked No. 133, is destined for greatness, her father insisted. “One day, she’ll wake up and realize she’s got everything it takes and just go out and do it,” Jim Pierce said. “I’m waiting for that day. Then it’s Katie bar the door.”

His daughter, who asked for and accepted a wild card, had angered first-round opponent Andrea Temesvari by toweling off before receiving service, a delaying tactic that earned Pierce a warning, a point penalty and scattered boos.

But Pierce was clearly the crowd favorite against Novotna, and her father remains steadfast in his belief in his daughter.

“I think she’d be ranked just as high as (Jennifer) Capriati, but (Mary) hasn’t gotten the ‘magic draw’ like she has,” Pierce said.

“I think if Mary played Capriati, she’d kick her butt--maybe not, but I’d like to see it,” he said. “You haven’t seen the best of Mary yet.”