It’s a Match for the Ages : Tennis: Seles, 18, plays Navratilova, 35, for title today at Manhattan Beach.

From the soft, manicured grass of Wimbledon to the hard, painted cement of Manhattan Beach, the most interesting show in women’s tennis features two left-handed punchers who cross rackets today in the final of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles to decide who has the momentum going into the U.S. Open.

In one corner, wearing a headband, is 35-year-old Martina Navratilova, who never met a volley she didn’t like.

And in the other corner, swinging a two-fisted forehand hotter than the spicy chicken sausage at the concession stands is 18-year-old Monica Seles.

Navratilova, who lost a three-set thriller to Seles in the Wimbledon semifinals, overcame five service breaks to beat Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), Saturday night at Manhattan Country Club.

After twice serving for the match only to be broken, Navratilova eventually finished off Maleeva-Fragniere after taking a 4-0 lead in the tiebreaker to earn a rematch with Seles.

“I know I’ll have to play a little better, but there’s no pressure on me,” Navratilova said. “Hell, I’ve got no right to even be playing any more at my age, I’m so old. The pressure is on her.”

Seles had a much easier time in her semifinal, a semi-routine 6-3, 6-2 victory over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. The victory was Seles’ 47th of the year against three defeats for the No. 1-ranked player in the world.

How long will the Seles era last? Is anyone within grunting distance of her? What’s on the mind of the No. 1 player in the world when she wakes up in the morning?

“I don’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘Oh, I’m No. 1, what a wonderful life,’ ” Seles said.

“No. 1 is a big thing when you get it or you lose it, but while you’re there, it’s just there.”

And as far as today’s final, well, Seles is just there. She arrived in her ninth final in 10 tournaments this year with a 63-minute immolation of Sanchez Vicario.

Despite protests by Seles, Navratilova was skeptical that Seles isn’t thinking about being No. 1.

“Pinocchio,” Navratilova said. “Baloney. It’s in the back of her mind. I think she doesn’t think about it when she is playing the match . . . she’s too busy getting the ball back.”

It wasn’t as if Seles had to play that great to beat Sanchez Vicario for the 10th time without a defeat. Let’s just say Sanchez Vicario has had better days keeping the ball from bouncing into the stands.

The match lasted only 17 games, long enough for Sanchez to spray 42 errors around the court, which meant that Seles only had to punch out 12 winners--an inordinately low number for her.

At least Sanchez Vicario came up with a possible explanation for her scatter-shooting: “Maybe I try to hit it hard and the wind take it out.”

Maybe. It’s also possible that the effects of major league jet lag--nine hours in time zone changes from Barcelona--took its toll, along with playing someone she has never beaten before.

As for the jet lag theory, Sanchez Vicario said this trip was her hardest.

“It really was very worse,” Sanchez Vicario said.

There’s not much that could have been worse than the serving by both players in the first set. Five service breaks were piled up, the last when Sanchez Vicario steered a backhand wide down the line to lose her serve a third time and allow Seles to collect the first set, 6-3, in 34 minutes.

The uneven play did not escape Seles’ attention: “Both of us made some strange errors.”

Then, already trailing a break as Seles served at 3-2 in the second set, Sanchez Vicario blew two break points at 15-40 and wound up losing the game by splattering three unforced errors in the last four points of the game.

Seles broke Sanchez Vicario a final time for 5-2, then served out the match at love. Just why it ended so swiftly seemed to puzzle Seles, who wasn’t at all pleased with the way she played.

“It was a very quick match,” she said. “I don’t really know what happened out there.

“I just want to put it behind me, to forget it because I’m not too happy about this match. Today, I just didn’t feel it.”

Tennis Notes

Monica Seles is 7-5 against Martina Navratilova, but they have split their last two meetings on hard courts. . . . There were more complaints about the lights, from Navratilova and Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere. “High balls are an adventure,” Navratilova said. “I even had a hard time on groundstrokes.” Said Maleeva-Fragniere: “If you hit the ball over the lights, you lose it.”