A Showdown in the New West : Tennis: Navratilova limps past Garrison for the 29th time in 30 matches, then Seles blows away Fernandez in straight sets.

Monica Seles, who hits the ball with the subtlety of a lumberjack, and Martina Navratilova, who strikes a jolly good volley at Wimbledon and points west, cross rackets today to decide who has momentum going into the U.S. Open.

Seles played target practice with the lines at the Manhattan Country Club Saturday night and blew down Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-1, 6-0, in the semifinals of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

Afterward, Seles said: “It wasn’t as easy as the score looked.”

She could have fooled Fernandez, who won only 22 points. She was asked what went wrong for her.

“Just about everything,” Fernandez said.

Earlier, top-seeded Navratilova played with a wounded knee and won her semifinal against Zina Garrison. Navratilova, who fell behind when she was healthy, fared better when she injured her knee at the start of the third set against Garrison and beat her, 6-0, 6-7 (7-2), 6-4.

This is the best way to look at the Garrison-Navratilova series: Garrison is the Washington Generals and Navratilova is the Globetrotters.

Garrison, who lost to Navratilova for the 29th time in 30 matches, did not take the latest defeat very well.

“It’s devastating,” she said.

At the very least, it was, well, different, probably making up in weirdness what it lacked in artistry.

“I don’t know how I won,” Navratilova said.

There were some nice moments, namely a near-perfect first set by Navratilova, who made just four errors and allowed Garrison only eight points.

But there was Navratilova coming from ahead to lose the second set, blowing 4-1 and 5-3 leads as well as two match points.

Navratilova’s excuse?

“I don’t have one,” she said. “Up 5-3, then 5-4 on my serve, two match points. It’s an easy match right there. I win, 6-0, 6-4.”

No, she doesn’t. Navratilova had eight double-faults. But Garrison, who had been playing half-asleep up to then, suddenly began hitting balls where she should instead of bouncing them off the doubles lines as she had before.

“I knew I wasn’t that bad,” she said.

The key game in the set for Garrison was when she broke Navratilova to 5-5, saving two match points in the process--one on a netted volley by Navratilova and the second a screeching crosscourt winner off Navratilova’s first serve.

Garrison dominated the tiebreaker, closing it out quickly with a lob that bounced behind Navratilova, who watched as it bounced away from her, which was also the same direction the match was heading.

All of a sudden, it got even worse for Navratilova, who later said it actually was better. Confusing? What happened was that Navratilova hurt her knee on the first point of the third set.

She said she pinched the sheath in front of her right knee, the same thing that she did to her left knee at Wimbledon, where she played with a small bandage taped on.

Because Navratilova’s right leg is her lead leg when she serves, she should have been in serious trouble, right? No. Navratilova flexed her knee between points, limped occasionally and stopped going after every shot, but she actually noticed an improvement in her own shotmaking.

“I actually hit the ball better,” she said. “It may have saved me.”

At first, Navratilova’s rescue was not apparent. She lost her serve in the first game, but got it back by breaking Garrison in the second, again for a 3-1 lead and holding for 4-1.

Garrison cooperated by making 10 unforced errors in the set, four more than she made in the first two sets. She evened the match at 4-4, then played two poor lobs that Navratilova put away for winners.

So Garrison walked to the service line at 4-5, trying to stay in the match. She promptly lost without winning a point, double-faulting twice and ended the match by knocking a backhand wide with Navratilova hugging the net.

That last shot caused Navratilova to pump her fists and Garrison to contemplate what went wrong. Again.

“It was over before I really knew,” Garrison said. “I can’t worry about it. It’s a loss. You have to learn from your losses.”

Against Navratilova, Garrison has lost enough to earn her doctorate.

Fernandez gained new appreciation for Seles’ accuracy with a racket in her hand after watching 19 winners get past her.

“If she’s on, Monica is hard to beat,” Fernandez said. “She has the lines measured. She goes for them all the time, so that’s hard to beat.”

Seles, seeded second, saved the only break point opportunity Fernandez had, but broke her opponent’s serve every time but once in a dominating performance. Seles is 1-3 against Navratilova, but they have never met on a hard court.

“You never know what will happen,” she said. “It could be 6-1, 6-1 or it can be 7-6, 7-6,” she said. “Nobody knows. But we’ll know tomorrow.”