Seles Needs Three Sets to Eke Out a Win : Tennis: She defeats Frazier in L.A. tournament but says all her success has left her a bit scared.

Monica Seles is ranked No. 3 in the world, the winner of a Grand Slam event, a six-time tournament champion, a multimillionaire at 16 and a semifinalist in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

With that kind of resume, the only problem would seem to be how to gauge her degree of elation.

Check one: Is she sort of happy, very happy or delirious?

Actually, Seles is scared, or so she said Friday after barely defeating Amy Frazier, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5, in the quarterfinals at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach.

Seles scared? Of what? Has she forgotten the number of her bank account in Zurich? If Seles being scared is not surprising, then her hair isn’t bleached blond.

“I’m playing a lot of points a bit scared,” said the second-seeded Seles, who will play Mary Joe Fernandez in today’s semifinals. “I’m No. 3, so I should win most of my matches and that’s pressure. I’m here and I’m supposed to win. I think that’s what happened to me all three of my matches.”

She nearly didn’t get past Frazier. Seles was down a break in the third set, caught up, then trailed, 0-40, at 4-4, but won it.

How did she do it?

“I don’t know,” Seles said.

Equally perplexed was Katerina Maleeva, who spent 63 minutes chasing down Zina Garrison’s shots and getting only a handful back during a 6-1, 6-1 defeat.

Maleeva did not seem to be too involved in the match, which even Garrison noticed.

“It kind of looked like she was out there . . . but not really,” said Garrison, whose reward is that she will play Martina Navratilova in the semifinals.

Navratilova, who scored a 6-0, 6-1, 47-minute victory over Kathy Rinaldi under the lights, is 28-1 against Garrison. She is also 7-0 against Rinaldi, who took her lumps with a wry smile.

“It wasn’t fun,” she said.

Navratilova saw the match differently: “It’s always fun to win. I’m riding a pretty good wave right now. I feel solid. Everything is pretty much in order.”

Asked to comment on her record against Navratilova, Garrison laughed. “All I know is the’1,’ ” she said. “But I guess the more times I play her, the better my chances are.”

The last word on the subject belonged to Maleeva, who was unsure if Garrison has a chance against Navratilova.

“You never know,” Maleeva said. “Tennis is a strange game.”

It was a day for little talk and a lot of routine matches, expect for Seles’ decidedly uphill victory.

Frazier, who began playing tennis when she was 3, aged Seles considerably by taking the first set. Seles ended it with a squeal and a high two-fisted backhand in the net.

Falling behind seemed to relax Seles somewhat. “The match is halfway lost, let’s just play,” Seles thought.

Then, when the unforced errors began to pile up in Frazier’s corner--she had 47--and outweighed her winners--37 in all--Seles had enough to come away with her 39th victory in her last 40 matches.

You might think if a player has lost one match since the first week of March, as Seles has done, confidence would be overflowing from that player like a waterfall.

But this is not exactly true, Seles said, adding: “I always have problems playing the other opponent ranked, oh, 12 to 20. That’s my problem. I don’t know why.

“I am always supposed to win, and it’s not easy. The other opponent takes advantage and she can put you out of the tournament. Luckily, a lot of other opponents don’t take advantage because they get scared, too.”

Fernandez ended Stephanie Rehe’s first serious challenge in 21 months with a 7-5, 6-2 victory. Fernandez served nine aces, hit 79% of her first serves and made only 17 unforced errors.

Rehe might have been tired on the day after upsetting Gabriela Sabatini in the singles, then teaming with Andrea Temesvari to win a doubles match Thursday night.

“Maybe my focus wasn’t there, (but) I’m not going to be hard on myself,” said Rehe, playing in only her second tournament since she injured her back in an automobile accident.