U.S. OPEN : Routes Differ, Results Same : Women’s semifinals: Seles, Sanchez Vicario waste little time getting to today’s matchup.

Presenting Monica and Arantxa in the women’s final at the U.S. Open, where you get your contrasts in personal styles.

Monica Seles, tennis’ answer to a food processor--she can slice, dice and chop with her racket--an 18-year-old two-fisted banger who craves privacy, runs straight into Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, a baby-faced 20-year-old extrovert who feeds ice cream bars to her dog Roland and carries him around in designer luggage.

Is this tennis, or show business?

At stake today are the women’s title in the U.S. Open, the fourth and final Grand Slam event of the year, and $500,000. With that, you can buy a lot of privacy or ice cream, take your pick.

Seles and Sanchez Vicario arrived in the final after traveling much the same route, blowing out overmatched opponents in the semifinals. Sanchez Vicario got there first, rubbing out Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 6-2, 6-1, followed quickly by Seles, who mashed Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-3, 6-2.

Seles’ victory was two-fold. Not only did she make it back to the final with a chance to defend the title she won a year ago, she also managed not to lose her voice.

Seles has been bothered by a cold and sore throat for the last week and had trouble talking after defeating Patricia Hy in the quarterfinals. But she sounded off loud and clear against Fernandez--and even grunted a few times.

Although she didn’t play as if she were sick, it was clear afterward that Seles is not fully recovered. Speaking in hushed tones in her postmatch interview, she stopped several times to blow her nose.

“It was a close match,” she said. “But I always felt that I was in control of it.”

It didn’t always look that way. There were 22 break points and Seles made the most of her chances. She converted six of 13 break points, watched Fernandez make 33 unforced errors and closed it out in 1 hour 18 minutes.

Seles has a chance to win her third Grand Slam event of 1992, her seventh in the last two years. The only Grand Slam tournament Seles has played and not won in the last two years was Wimbledon in July, when Steffi Graf beat her in the final.

Now that she is so close to another major title, Seles said she remains wary of Sanchez Vicario.

“She runs down a lot of balls, great from the backcourt, volleying really well, very tough mentally, great all-around,” Seles said.

Against Fernandez, Seles was tough when it counted most. Three times Fernandez took leads with breaks--twice in the first set, once in the second--but Seles broke back each time.

“Maybe I was trying a bit too much, respecting her passing shot too much, but she played really well,” Fernandez said.

The only way Maleeva-Fragniere could keep up with Sanchez Vicario was in last names. Arantxa bounced 18 winners off the green concrete court, broke Manuela seven times, got in 81% of her first serves and wrapped up the whole thing in 64 minutes.

Actually, it all went pretty much according to plan, Sanchez Vicario said. “Well, I knew that if I start playing very well the first games, she maybe going little bit down,” Sanchez Vicario said.

If Maleeva-Fragniere had gone down any farther, she would have become part of the pavement. Because of Sanchez Vicario’s ability to hit hard and play fast, Maleeva-Fragniere’s only tactic was to try to equal her, which she couldn’t do. And that led to a lot of mistakes.

Maleeva-Fragniere had eight winners and 30 unforced errors.

“She was putting pressure on me by not missing much,” Maleeva-Fragniere said. “And I was a little bit impatient. I tried to hit winners, but I was not always in position. I was just a little bit overdoing it.”

According to Maleeva-Fragniere, she played better in the second set, but there was one problem: “It was a bit too late.”

Sanchez Vicario hasn’t had much luck against Seles, but at least she is heading into the final on a roll--a one-match winning streak. At the Canadian Open last month, Sanchez Vicario upset Seles in a three-set final, reversing the result from the previous week at the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, when Seles won in straight sets.

All told, Seles is 10-1 against Sanchez Vicario.

“Well, I am thinking positively,” Sanchez Vicario said. “Even if it’s (against) the No. 1, I don’t have nothing to lose against her. The pressure is all on her because she has to defend the title.

“But I am really happy because I know I am playing my best tennis right now.”

Hey, you never know. If things work out, maybe Roland will buy ice cream bars for the house.

U.S. Open Notes

In the men’s doubles final, Jim Grabb and Richey Reneberg defeated Kelly Jones and Rick Leach, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, 6-3. “No matter what happens the rest of the way, we have this one and I think it’s great,” Reneberg said. . . . Ivan Lendl lost the first set of every one of his matches here. “That happens sometimes,” he said. “I haven’t figured out a pattern for that yet.” . . . After blowing four match points before rain washed out the completion of the match early Friday morning, Stefan Edberg said he had a curious reaction. “I went home last night, I wasn’t disappointed, but I was sort of thinking, ‘This is my match,’ ” Edberg said. “I just sort of laughed about the whole thing.” . . . Jim Courier is 1-5 against Pete Sampras.