FRENCH OPEN / WOMEN : Expected Cast Stays Alive as Final Four

Weather permitting, the four top-seeded women will play today in the French Open at Roland Garros Stadium in a sequel to last year’s semifinals.

For the second consecutive year, defending champion Monica Seles will meet Gabriela Sabatini, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario will meet Steff Graf for the right to play for the championship.

It is the first time since 1968 that the four top-seeded women have reached a Grand Slam semifinal.

“(This) could be very good tennis,” said Sanchez Vicario of Spain, who defeated Graf in the 1991 semifinals, 6-0, 6-2.

How good might depend on the weather, which turned chilly Wednesday. Today’s forecast calls for continuing rain and cold.

By now, the women should be used to less-than-ideal conditions. Their quarterfinal matches Tuesday were played on slippery clay. The surface was so unresponsive that the balls behaved as if they were tranquilized.

Seles, seeded first, and Sabatini, seeded third, are the kind of players who can adapt to the situation. Seles, 24-1 at Roland Garros, has dropped only one set in five matches--during a fourth-round victory over Japan’s Akiko Kijimuta Saturday. Sabatini lost her first set against Conchita Martinez in the quarterfinals.

Sabatini, of Buenos Aires, defeated Seles in the final of the Italian Open last month, 7-5, 6-4. She also defeated Seles in Rome in 1991. But that did not help in Paris, where Seles won last year, 6-4, 6-1.

Seles, 18, said it is impossible to improve much in the time between the French and Italian opens, but thinks her chances are better here.

“I hope I am running better,” she said. “I ran a lot in Rome.”

Sabatini, 22, lost nine games in her first four matches. She said she hardly thought about the competition until she faced Martinez, seeded seventh.

She was nervous then with the kind of queasiness that comes before big matches. At 5 feet 8, Sabatini has the ability to control the pace. She is considered one of the biggest threats to Seles.

Because this is Paris, Sanchez Vicario is a formidable opponent for Graf, seeded second. Sanchez Vicario, seeded fourth, joined the top echelon of women’s tennis in 1989 by shocking Graf in the French Open final in three sets. Whether she can defeat Graf at Center Court for the third time, not even she is sure.

“It could be interesting,” she said.

Starting in 1988, the two have met 16 times with Graf winning all matches except those at Roland Garros. Sanchez Vicario told Spanish reporters Wednesday that she wonders how Graf will handle the pressure.

“I know I can beat her . . . and I feel very comfortable,” Sanchez Vicario said. “Maybe that helps me a little bit.”

Graf, who will be 23 this month, said she has not been haunted by her losses to Sanchez Vicario on the red clay.

“Not at all,” she said. “I haven’t looked back.”

Graf said she did not analyze her last loss to Sanchez Vicario because she had nothing to learn.

“I tried to put the ball in the court, and it didn’t work,” she said. “So what else can you do?”