Graf Easily Beats Sanchez Vicario, 6-1, 6-2 : U.S. Open: Defending champion has little trouble with Spaniard. She needs only 55 minutes to win and advance to final.

Defending champion Steffi Graf advanced to the final of the U.S. Open today by defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-1, 6-2.

With rain in the forecast and skies growing darker, Graf, the top seed, took only 55 minutes in making her fourth consecutive trip to the final on the hard courts at the National Tennis Center.

“I didn’t make mistakes from the beginning on,” Graf said. “I wasn’t forcing it.

“I knew I had to stay in the match. I couldn’t have lapses. I tried to concentrate on every single point, and I did it quite well, I think.”

Despite the score, Graf had to battle through the first five games of the match, which took only 19 minutes. She broke Sanchez, the No. 6 seed, in the fourth game, then fought off a break point and through four deuces before holding her own service to grab a 4-1 lead.

After that she was in high gear, providing too much power and too many problems for Sanchez to solve.

“I couldn’t play much better,” Graf said. “I made good forehands, I served well. All in all, my game was very good.

“I was playing too fast for her today.”

The West German had two aces and nine service winners and generally took immediate charge of the points in her service games.

“She played unbelievable,” Sanchez said. “You can’t do anything when somebody serves that well.

“Today she hit unbelievable forehands, every time to the line. When she serves that good she has time to really hit the forehand.”

Sanchez, whose only victory over Graf in nine career meetings came in the final of the French Open last year, screamed at the base line judge twice when she thought Graf’s deep ground strokes had sailed long. But it really didn’t matter as Graf simply overpowered the Spaniard.

“She has a lot of confidence, all the shots. I think she’s going to win the tournament,” Sanchez said of Graf.

The second women’s semifinal, pitting fifth-seeded Gabriela Sabatini against No. 8 Mary Joe Fernandez, was scheduled for later in the day.

The victory provided a taste of revenge for the top-seeded Graf, who was denied a second straight Grand Slam sweep when Sanchez beat her in the French Open final in 1989.

Graf has already faced both Sabatini and Fernandez in Grand Slam finals, beating Sabatini to win the 1988 U.S. Open title, and capturing this year’s Australian Open title at the expense of Fernandez.

A victory in Saturday’s final would make Graf the first woman to win three consecutive U.S. titles since Chris Evert, who finished a run of four in a row in 1978.

South Africans Pieter Aldrich and Danie Visser won the men’s doubles title at the U.S. Open today by beating Americans Paul Annacone and David Wheaton 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.

It marked the second Grand Slam doubles championship this year for Aldrich-Visser, the number two seeds. They won the Australian Open and were finalists at Wimbledon, losing to Americans Rick Leach and Jim Pugh.

Annacone and Wheaton, the first unseeded team to reach the U.S. doubles final since 1976, were playing together in only their third tournament.