Garrison Ends Seles’ Streak : Wimbledon: Graf, Navratilova, Sabatini also reach the semifinals. Pearce, the best player in Provo, Utah, is Lendl’s next challenge.

On a typical British summer day, the sun played touch and go with clouds, the temperature dipped and the wind blew, taking Monica Seles along with it.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf and second-seeded Martina Navratilova marched in step to a Wimbledon final that appears more likely each day. Seles, seeded third, was not as lucky.

Fifth-seeded Zina Garrison fought off one match point and ended Seles’ 36-match winning streak with an uphill, 3-6, 6-3, 9-7, victory Tuesday in the only upset of the women’s quarterfinals.

Seles, who managed her trademark Woody Woodpecker laugh afterward, had won six consecutive tournaments in the year’s biggest stretch of success before running into Garrison’s grass-court game.

Garrison, whose previous best Wimbledon result was in 1985 when she lost to Navratilova in the semifinals, credits an improved mental outlook.

“I think I have a better chance this year because I’m a lot more relaxed,” Garrison said. “I’m playing within my older self.”

Pardon?

“My older self,” she said. “I’m 26, yeah. (The) old person on the tour, now.”

Not as long as Navratilova is around. At 33, Navratilova is the oldest player on the women’s tour. In her quarterfinal match against seventh-seeded Katarina Maleeva, Navratilova won, 6-1, 6-1, in a withering 48-minute display.

It was Navratilova’s third victory by the same score, a statistic she appreciated, even though she isn’t getting much playing time.

“I don’t get paid by the minute,” Navratilova said. “I’m not complaining.”

Navratilova’s victory was a record 97th at Wimbledon, moving her past Chris Evert. If Navratilova is to get No. 98 in the semifinals Thursday, it must come at the expense of fourth-seeded Gabriela Sabatini.

With Navratilova watching the match from the press seats, Sabatini needed 2 hours 22 minutes to defeat 11th-seeded Natalia Zvereva, 6-2, 2-6, 8-6.

Graf struggled early, then moved swiftly past 13th-seeded Jana Novotna, 7-5, 6-2, and next runs into Garrison, an unexpected foe, in the semifinals. Graf thought she would be playing Seles.

“To tell you the truth, I was hoping to play against her really badly, so I am a little disappointed about it, yes,” Graf said.

Ivan Lendl was disappointed he lost the first set against Alex Antonitsch, but quite happy to win the next three and come away with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory in the fourth round.

The long road continues for Lendl, who plays his third match in three days today when he meets unseeded Brad Pearce of Provo, Utah, in the quarterfinals.

Pearce, 24, a former UCLA All-American who has never won a tournament or been ranked higher than No. 90, won his fourth-round match against Mark Woodforde, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

One of the shortest players on the tour at 5 feet 9, Pearce turned pro after his sophomore year at UCLA when he reached the semifinals of the NCAA tournament.

Ranked No. 120, he is the lowest-ranked player left. Pearce said that Provo is not exactly a tennis hotbed, but admitted he might be the best player from the city.

“It’s safe to say that,” Pearce said.

Graf’s victory extended her Wimbledon record to 32-4, and one more will put her into her 14th consecutive Grand Slam final. The only other person to do that is Navratilova.

If Graf expected to be playing Seles, almost everyone who sat at Court 1 Tuesday thought the same thing, especially after Seles closed out the first set against Garrison in 31 minutes.

But Garrison won the second set, the difference a single service break in the fourth game. No one held serve until the fourth game of the third set when Garrison took a 3-1 lead that became 4-1 when she broke Seles at love.

Serving for 5-1, Garrison lost at love and Seles eventually caught up at 4-4. Then Garrison’s serve was broken a third time.

Garrison thought she made a mental mistake when she served for 5-1.

“I probably said the wrong thing to myself,” Garrison said. “But I felt that she was going to come back to 4-4, and I just said to myself that I (should) just bear down, whatever the circumstances, just give it my best.”

The circumstances were soon dire. Seles held serve for 7-6 and was at match point on Garrison’s serve after Garrison hit a forehand into the net for 30-40. But if Garrison had seemed tentative before, she no longer was.

Garrison cracked a forehand cross-court for deuce, hit the same shot for her advantage and followed it with a forehand passing shot that dribbled off Seles’ racket.

One point away from winning, Seles was caught off guard.

Seles lost her serve at 15-40 to put Garrison up, 8-7. Then Garrison quickly went ahead again, 40-0, and ended the match when Seles lofted a lob past the baseline. Garrison won 11 of the last 12 points of the match.

Seles shook hands with Garrison at the net and walked off, leaving her 36-match, six-tournament winning streak on the court.

Her reaction: “Oh, gee.”

But Seles, the 16-year-old French Open champion, could still remember how it felt to lose a match, even if she hadn’t done it since mid-March.

“I mean, it’s OK,” Seles said. “But for 10 minutes, maybe it’s a little difficult. Tomorrow it’s probably better.”