July 7, 1991

IRIS HELFRITCH got the diagnosis in 1972, when she was 27 years old and pregnant with her youngest child. Multiple sclerosis, the doctor said -- a progressive neurological disease that would steal her independence and leave her in and out of wheelchairs over the next two decades. Fourteen years later, she got a telephone call from Freedom's Wings International. "You don't know me," a stranger's voice said, "but how would you like to fly?"

The once-indomitable Steffi Graf, plagued for the last year by blackouts of her tennis game on the court and by black moods off it, today restored her confidence and reversed her nascent reputation as a waning star by capturing her third Wimbledon title. The victory came at the expense of her nearest and least-dear rival, Gabriela Sabatini. "I wanted to have that feeling again for once," said Graf, who was so elated at the chance to dwell on a major victory rather than her vulnerability that she buried her face in a towel and cried at courtside.

THE National Marine Fisheries Service plan to curtail shark fishing in October is splitting sport and commercial fishermen. The program includes limits for 39 species, a minimum size for makos and outlawing "finning," when fishermen slice the dorsal fins for soups and release the sharks. The three management categories are large coastal species like tiger and sandbars, small coastal species and pelagic, or ocean wanderers.

A Poet Laureate Dies Howard Nemerov, a Pulitzer Prize- winning poet known for his ability to handle the contemporary world in formal verse, is dead at 71. Page 18.

From Phoenix to Chicago to Newark, city administrators are inviting private companies to help provide public services -- and swearing by the results: big cost savings and better service. With New York City in such difficult financial straits, some of the city's politicians are wondering if there is more that New York could or should be doing in this area.