WIMBLEDON : Form Gets Thrown Out, and So Does Navratilova : Wimbledon: Novotna is dominating in 6-4, 6-4 semifinal upset of nine-time champion. She will face Graf for the title.

Just when you thought women’s tennis truly was as predictable as porridge, that the Tower of London would be turned into a tourist hotel before anything surprising happened at Wimbledon, something semi-startling occurred Thursday in the semifinals.

What is Wimbledon without Martina Navratilova? We’re going to find out in the final Saturday when Jana Novotna runs racket-first into Steffi Graf.

It’s an altogether unforeseen matchup. Novotna made it possible by knocking out Navratilova, the 36-year-old grass-court grande dame.

Novotna played as if she was taking a walk in the park. The score was 6-4, 6-4 and represented her first victory over Navratilova in eight tries.

“I still don’t believe it,” said Novotna, who covered her mouth with her hand in disbelief at the end of the match.

Meanwhile, Graf’s appearance in the final caused barely a ripple. She did some serious number-crunching while knocking out a 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 decision over an increasingly disheartened Conchita Martinez.

It was Graf’s seventh consecutive Wimbledon semifinal, leading to her sixth final, possibly leading to her fifth title.

“I think it felt great,” Graf said of her eighth consecutive victory over Martinez. “I’m very excited to be here.”

And why not? The only blemish on Graf’s report card Thursday was a messy little game in the first set when she lost her serve and fell behind, 4-1.

After that, she was off in a flash. Graf broke Martinez at love to even the match, forced Martinez to six deuces just to hold serve to stay in the first set, then threw a shutout in the tiebreaker.

Martinez is from Barcelona, where clay, not grass, is the tennis court of choice. There is only one grass court in Spain. Martinez’s big, looping backswing is perfect for a clay-court game, but not so effective on grass, a fact that became clear once Graf figured out what to do with Martinez’s ground strokes.

“I needed a lot of time to get into it,” Graf said.

Speaking of time, Graf reached the final by averaging 57 minutes for her six matches.

The second set against Martinez was over nearly as soon as it began. Graf lost only four points in five service games.

Graf’s explanation: “I served a lot better.”

Navratilova’s 21st Wimbledon ended in 1 hour 22 minutes of near-total frustration. Part of it was because of Novotna’s quickness to the net, her serves and some spectacular passing shots.

The other reason for Navratilova’s demise was equally out of her control. She isn’t 24 years old, like Novotna, who is not only younger, but faster than the prototype.

Navratilova was in constant trouble. She faced 12 break points, saved nine, but lost her serve three times. In five previous matches, she had dropped her serve only twice.

Novotna, from the Czech Republic, equaled that total in the first set. She took a 2-1 lead by ripping a passing shot down the line, then broke Navratilova again on a forehand pass, then a double fault at break point.

Down 5-1, Navratilova closed to within 5-4, but Novotna juiced up her serve for two aces, the second on set point, to close it out in 43 minutes.

Navratilova went down another service break, to 2-1 in the second, when she junked a backhand volley into the net. She sat down heavily in her chair and covered her face with a towel.

Like everyone else in the 13,118 at Centre Court, she knew the end was in sight.

There were two major problems, Navratilova said.

“The court was really slow on her half and it was really fast on mine,” Navratilova joked. “She had something going on with the blades of grass. I mean, she played great.”

Novotna performed with the same gliding, seemingly effortless style of her coach, Hana Mandlikova, who watched the match from her seat in the friends’ box wearing a black baseball cap.

Mandlikova is a four-time Grand Slam tournament champion, who won the Australian Open in 1980 and 1987, the French Open in 1981 and the U.S. Open in 1985. Mandlikova won every Grand Slam event but Wimbledon, which Navratilova has claimed nine times.

“I don’t feel any sympathy,” Novotna said of Navratilova’s losing a chance for No. 10. “We went to the court and she was the loser today. But I don’t feel sorry for her, because I think I’ve played an incredible match and I deserved to win.”

And Navratilova deserved to lose. It wasn’t quite the graceful exit she deserved, but maybe it shouldn’t have been totally unexpected.

She played her first Wimbledon in 1973, when Novotna was 4 years old and Graf was 3. Navratilova may be a tennis dinosaur, but she insists she is a long way from being extinct.

On her way off the court, she raised her finger and said something to the crowd.

“I said ‘I’ll be back,’ me and Arnold,” Navratilova said.

“I don’t think I would play if I don’t stand a chance to win, no,” she said. “I’m not a glutton for punishment. I wouldn’t play just to get to the round of 16 and look good for a while and then get blown out by somebody, you know.

“I’ve had several peaks over the years. I just hope I can hit another one. I don’t know if I would have won on my form in ’84 or something, the way I played the game then, or ‘78, or whatever.

“Today I had a bad day, but age is not why I lost today and that’s not why I can’t win any more, but it certainly makes things more difficult.”

Somebody asked Navratilova about life after tennis. There was time for one more volley. “I think it beats the hell out of life after death, that’s for sure,” she said.

* MEN’S SEMIFINALS

It’s Sampras against Becker and Courier against Edberg today as the four top-seeded players square off for the first time since 1927. C2