JOINT women's world number one Monica Seles, withdrew from the Spanish. Open yesterday but the WTA said she would be fit for the French Open starting at Roland Garros, Paris, on Monday.

Seles, playing her first tournament in Europe since being stabbed on court in Hamburg in April 1993, withdrew from her semi final match against Jana Novotna because of a slight pain in her shoulder.

Three times champion Seles, who has lost only one match at the French Open in four visits, will not be able to take anything for granted - even if she is 100 per cent fit - when she attempts to win the second leg of the Grand Slam.

The left handed 22 year old Australian Open champion is scheduled to play her first match against 168th ranked French wild card player Caroline Dhenin. But in the second round she should face Japan's Naoko Sawamatsu - a player who thrives on the Roland Garros clay courts and who reached the third round last year.

Seles had to save five match points in her first match at the Spanish Open earlier this week before seeing off Austria's Barabara Schett. Whether she can adapt quickly enough to Sawamatsu's telling clay court patience remains to be seen.

If she does come safely through, Seles will probably have to negotiate a difficult fourth round showdown against Bulgaria's 13th seed Magdalena Maleeva. Then her opponent should be either Novotna of the Czech Republic or big serving Brenda Schultz McCarthy from Holland.

In the semi finals Seles should find twice champion and last year's finalist, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, the other side of the net. In the other half of the draw, defending champion Stefi Graf, will not be expecting an easy ride. She opens against the experienced Larisa Neiland of Latvia before facing either Nicole Provis Bradke of Australia or Jolene Watanabe of the United States.

Graf, who has recently been showing some signs of vulnerability, has a potentially explosive quarter final against the ever improving Iva Majoli of Croatia. Graf, 26, lost to Amanda Coetzer of South Africa in the Federation Cup, and then went out to Swiss teenager Martina Hingis in the semi finals of the Italian Open. She has been under relentless pressure for over a year while her father and financial advisor Peter Graf has been held in a German prison on charges of tax evasion. If she makes it through, she is scheduled to play Conchita Martinez in the semi finals, whom she described as "the one player she would rather avoid.

In the men's event Pete Sampras' hopes of winning the only Grand Slam title missing from his collection were dealt a blow on Thursday by Paris St. Germain footballer Daniel Bravo.

The European Cup Winners Cup playmaker, invited to make the draw for the 1996 Championships, brought gasps from the celebrity packed Roland Garros audience by picking out highly efficient Swede Magnus Gustaffson as Sampras' first round opponent.

He then produced Spain's twice champion Sergi Bruguera as probable second round opposition.

The top heavy first quarter of the men's draw also included Todd Martin of the United States, former champion Mats Wilander of Sweden and Gilbert Schaller of Austria - the player who put Sampras out in the first round 12 months ago.

Sampras has played, and lost, only once - at the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf earlier this week - since the death of his coach and friend Tim Gullikson on May 3. He will need to produce his very best tennis on the red clay surface if he is to reach a scheduled fourth round clash against sixteenth seeded American Mali Vai Washington.

Thomas Muster's first seeded opponent should be Germany's Michael Stich, who opens against a qualifier. The Austrian is then. due to play Thomas Enqvist - if the Swedish eighth seed can put out Chile's promising 20 year old ninth seed Marcelo Rios.

Rios, the left handed South American Andre Agassi who has shot up the rankings into the world's top to, opens against American Michael Joyce. He should then play Australian Jason Stoltenberg, who has drawn a first round qualifier.

Michael Chang, the 1989 champion and a finalist last year, should be Goran Ivanisevic's quarter final opponent - and that won't be to the fast serving Croatian's liking. Ivanisevic refers to Chang as the mosquito.

"Against Chang you have to win every point at least three times. He is always running all over the court and getting the ball back, he says.

Chang, who had a training session on the centre court with brother Carl just before the draw, opens against Germany's Davis Prinosil. Then he should face either Australian Richard Fromberg or Frenchman Olivier Delaitre.