TENNIS / WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT AT MANHATTAN BEACH : Navratilova and Sanchez Vicario Advance to Championship Match

The menu today for the final of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles features a left-hander who practices the serve and volley on the court and vegetarianism in the dining room against a right-hander with a taste for hot groundstrokes and steaming pasta.

If she wins, Martina Navratilova can pick up the check and pass $19 million in prize money. If Arantxa Sanchez Vicario wins, she can prove she really is No. 3 after all.

Navratilova sipped a rice milk concoction immediately after draining a 6-1, 6-1 semifinal victory Saturday over Gabriela Sabatini.

A vegetarian since New Year’s Day, Navratilova said she recommends her diet to anyone.

“I definitely feel better,” she said.

Maybe she will also feel faster when she plays Sanchez Vicario, a backboard with a headband who warmed up for her serve and volley test against Navratilova with a 7-5, 6-2 victory against Lori McNeil in the other semifinal.

Sanchez Vicario is looking for her fourth Kraft Tour title this year and she got closer with a rousing display of shot-making under the lights.

Down 3-0 to McNeil, Sanchez Vicario lost only five games the rest of the way and arrived in the final happy with herself and eager to stand in against Navratilova’s volley attack.

“She has the best in the game, I think, so I know I have to be patience,” Sanchez Vicario said.

“I hit a very good shots. Probably I can be the player who can make very tough matches than the others.”

On her way to her 232nd singles final, Navratilova dropped only 11 games. Sanchez Vicario has played both singles and doubles, which means her legs may show a little wear, but she remained upbeat.

“I am getting the ball back,” Sanchez Vicario said. “I keep winning.”

Navratilova, the defending champion, has kept winning her entire career. A victory today would be her 165th singles title.

It would also continue the debate, begun by Navratilova, that she really is No. 3, not No. 4 as the rankings say.

Navratilova picked up some inspiration from a story she read about Nigel Mansell. Actually, it was from a message printed on a cap belonging to Mansell, the Formula 1-turned-Indy car driver.

“It said ‘Look 30, Act 20, Feel Like 60, Must Be 40,’ ” said Navratilova, 36. “I don’t ever feel 60, but sometimes I act 10. It varies.

“On days like today, it’s just so friggin’ simple when you do it right and so very complicated when you don’t. But I felt young out there, yes.”

Sabatini might have gotten away with her slow-motion serves and pokey groundstrokes in her other matches, but Navratilova worked her over in 52 minutes.

“It’s not very nice to lose that way,” Sabatini said.

It was all over so quickly that Navratilova mused about how she might spend the rest of the afternoon.

“Hang out with my friends, go shopping, relax,” Navratilova said. “Maybe buy another Harley.”

Afterward, Sabatini was asked if she would favor Navratilova’s retirement, or at least consider picking up the tab for the party.

“No,” she said. “I want to beat her like that.”

Navratilova hasn’t beaten anybody like that since, oh, the night before when she defeated Amanda Coetzer by the same score.

“I played pretty flawless (against Coetzer) and I backed it up again,” Navratilova said. “I’ve never played four flawless sets in a row against top players--or at least not in a long time.”

Sabatini held serve twice, once in each set. She won only 22 points on her own serve, double-faulted twice and missed the only two break-point opportunities she had.

They came in the second game of the second set, by which time Navratilova had won seven of the first eight games.

Tennis Notes

Besides the news this week that she will not play the U.S. Open, information is scarce concerning Monica Seles, who is believed to be continuing her recovery from a stab wound in Vail, Colo. However, she was in Palm Desert recently as a guest of Betsy Nagelsen and her husband, Mark McCormack of IMG, founder of the management firm that represents Seles. Nagelsen confirmed Saturday that Seles was a house guest for three days the week before the final of the Mazda tournament at La Costa, where Nagelsen played doubles. “She didn’t pick up a racket,” Nagelsen said. “I hit, she didn’t.” Noted track coach Bob Kersee reportedly was in Colorado recently training Seles.

Virginia Slims may pull its title sponsorship of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, one of five Virginia Slims events remaining on the lame-duck Kraft Tour, when its contract is up after 1994. Ina Broeman, group manager of event marketing for Virginia Slims, said the sponsorship decision is on hold until the leadership of the women’s game decides on its new format for 1995, when Kraft exits as the overall tour sponsor.