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Graf says she never announced her retirement

German tennis heroine Steffi Graf today claimed she never said she planned to quit professional tennis at the end of the season and only play exhibition matches in the future.

''What I wanted to say was that there has been no decision about the date of my retirement,'' the 30-year-old insisted.

Her advisor Hans Engert said the confusion must have resulted from a translation error: ''Steffi only informed about her plans until the end of the season and said what has always being saying, that she doesn't know when exactly she will quit.''

The 30-year-old Graf was initially quoted as saying at an invitation tournament in Mahwah, New Jersey: ''I'll be finishing with the WTA Tour at the end of the year.''

Such a retirement announcement would have been no real surprise. Graf had already said after the French Open and Wimbledon she would not return to those Grand Slams and has been pestered over the past weeks about when she will quit for good.

However, she gave plenty of indications that her career will not last much longer.

''It's hard to quit something you love so much. But it's the ideal situation to quit the sport when you're ranked at the top,'' said the current world No 3 three player.

Graf said she planned to play exhibition matches, mainly in countries where she has never been before, after the end of her professional career which started October 18, 1982 at the age of 13.

Such events can be organised by her own marketing company like she has already done in the past.

In addition, Graf will continue to work with German talents through her junior team and with the national federation DTB. That is badly needed in the women's sector because there are no potential top-10 players in sight and former ace Anke Huber has declined to a current 30 ranking.

''Tennis will continue to be part of my life,'' said Graf.

For now Graf confirmed her intention to play the US Open as well as four other tournaments. The last of the year should be the Masters in New York, November 15-21, while German fans will be able to see her possibly for the last time at the Filderstadt event from October 4-10.

Graf has won 107 career titles - among them 22 Grand Slams, the latest the French Open in June. Graf won a perfect Grand Slam 1988 and added Olympic gold that year for a Golden Slam.

She held the world No 1 position a record 377 weeks and amssed 21 million dollars in prize-money alone. The income from endorsements is even higher.

But Graf has also been through almost as many injuries as titles, and her father Peter Graf, who initially taught her the game when she was three years old, did his share to trouble her life.

First there was his affair with a model and then the tax evasion scandal which rocked Germany's sporting world and put him in prison for almost two years. Peter Graf is by now divorced from Heidi Graf, but was in Paris to see her French Open triumph.

Graf mentioned none of that, not even her renewed back problems, but simply said: ''I still enjoy the game, but the Tour is very exhausting with all the travelling from event to event.''

UNI