On Perfectly Routine Day, Graf Just That : Wimbledon: German joins top four players in semifinals with admittedly flawless second set against Fernandez.

Order has been restored to the women’s side of the Wimbledon singles draw. The six unseeded players, interlopers, really, who had infiltrated the round of 16 have been culled. That having been attended to, the four highest-seeded players will compete in Thursday’s semifinals.

Whether boring or predictable, the top women here have at least been dependable. No. 1 seeded Steffi Graf admitted to having played a perfect set, Gabriela Sabatini failed to hold a lead, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario’s diligence paid off and--in the day’s only departure from form--Jana Novotna didn’t choke.

The day’s ho-hum results, in order: Top-seeded Graf overwhelmed Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-3, 6-0. Second-seeded Sanchez Vicario outran Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). Third-seeded Conchita Martinez capitalized where Sabatini could not, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5). Fourth-seeded Novotna had more sizzle than a subdued Kimiko Date, 6-2, 6-3.

Graf’s was the most impressive performance. She has lost only five games in her last three matches, having managed to disguise and overcome whatever is happening with her ailing back and sore wrist.

Asked if it were possible for her to play better than she did during the 20 minutes of her second set Tuesday, Graf bluntly said no.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I think I couldn’t have placed the ball [better]. Maybe I could have hit harder, but I don’t think that would have made any sense. I think I really went for everything that I could at the time.”

Fernandez and Graf traded service breaks in the first set, then Graf broke again to win it. Fernandez’s strategy of running opponents around and mixing up her shots was effective in the first set, but only offered Graf a greater variety of responses in the second set.

“There’s really nothing I could do,” Fernandez said of the second set. “I thought I was hitting the ball pretty well, but it just kept coming back faster. She really raised her game in the second set. Really.”

The five-time Wimbledon champion came here having won the French Open but operating on suspect preparation. She had practiced on grass, but had not played a tournament to get ready for Wimbledon.

“I’m surprised at how well I’m playing here,” Graf said. “I didn’t have the best preparation for this tournament. In the start of the tournament, I didn’t feel the best. To be able to produce this kind of tennis--I did not think about it being possible.”

Defending champion Conchita Martinez was in good form and had the good luck to face Sabatini who, as ever, lacked the killer instinct necessary to close out quick points on grass.

Sabatini’s serve, always suspect and never a weapon, was ineffective. She lost her serve to lose the first set, although she did manage to save two set points.

Martinez was up, 5-1, in the second set, but it was Sabatini who came back. The Argentine showed a flair for volleying that she seldom is called upon to display. As she changed her game to go on the attack, Martinez appeared stunned.

Sabatini broke Martinez in the seventh game and staved off two match points to hold her serve at 5-3. It was a run uncharacteristic of Sabatini and it was impressive. She broke again in the next game, with Martinez serving for the match.

Martinez salvaged the set in the tiebreaker with superb volleying and insistent serving.

“Perhaps I should have finished the match when I had those two match balls, I don’t know,” Martinez said. “I lost track what game it was. But you have to take those opportunities and don’t let them go, because it can change the match.

“She suddenly started attacking me a lot more. I started playing a bit passive, and after that I just thought, ‘Keep playing aggressive, not waiting until Gaby makes the mistake.’ That’s it, Gaby didn’t make many mistakes.”

Novotna’s match was filled with silent echoes of her 1993 Wimbledon final, in which she threw away a huge lead to Graf and crumpled--figuratively in the match and literally into the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent.

Novotna has still not lived it down, which is why her matches thus far have been so emphatic. Date, the first Japanese woman ever to reach a Wimbledon quarterfinal, offered little resistance, a fact noted with some relish by Novotna.

“Sometimes what I miss in her game is that little fire, fighting spirit,” she said. “I don’t think she was hitting the ball that badly. I think when everything is not going Kimiko’s way, she just gives up a little bit. At least I feel that way. She’s not such a great fighter, she doesn’t show it.”

In her defense, Date has been under constant bombardment here, from both the tenacious tabloid reporters and the standard huge Japanese media contingent that follows the No. 6 player around the world.

The crime: Date has been accused of conducting a personal relationship with her coach, not an atypical rumor on the women’s tour, but one that has reduced the reticent player to tears at more than one news conference.

The only imaginable scenario that might reduce Sanchez Vicario to tears is telling her she wasn’t allowed to play tennis anymore. As is her habit, the Spaniard is also playing in doubles here and not even that double duty seems to sap her energy.

Sanchez Vicario has to fight to win, and that suits her. She was down a break in both sets and her victory over the big-serving Schultz-McCarthy propels her into the semifinals, the furthest she has progressed at Wimbledon in nine tries.