Martina Navratilova had Jimmy Connors on her mind as she scampered around the court against a panting, weary teen-ager and surged into the U.S. Open semifinals.
"I kept coming in," she said after her 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 comeback against Aranxta Sanchez Vicario on Wednesday. "I saw Jimmy doing it over the course of five sets. I said, `Gosh, how can he keep it up for almost five hours?'"But I thought if he can do it for that long, I can do it for half the time. I figured if he could do it at 39, I can do it at 34. I'm a spring chicken next to him."
This spring chicken has surgery-scarred knees and 19 years of pro tennis behind her, but she still can cover a lot of court.
An incredulous look crossed Sanchez Vicario's face when she was asked if she thought Navratilova, a four-time U.S. Open champion, was old.
"No-oh!" the 19-year-old from Spain said with a laugh, her eyes popping wide with astonishment that anyone could think such a thing after she'd just been turned into a sagging heap by the indefatigable Navratilova.
Navratilova broke Sanchez Vicario's last five services to win the 2-hour, 12-minute match, reach the semis here for the 12th time in 17 years and set up a match Friday against No. 1 Steffi Graf.
Graf, who beat Conchita Martinez 6-1, 6-3, has beaten Navratilova in their last four matches and has breezed to the semis here without dropping a set. But Navratilova won seven of her first 10 matches against Graf and has improved because of knee surgery since their last meeting two years ago. Navratilova also has a new and better serve since her upset by Jennifer Capriati at Wimbledon in June.
Navratilova struggled in her second straight three-setter of this tournament but got some lovely gifts from Sanchez Vicario, none more welcome than a forehand volley dumped into the net with the court wide open on the final point.
Navratilova was off the court after chasing down a backhand, and when she saw Sanchez Vicario miss that last easy shot, she pumped her fist and celebrated her return to the semis for the first time since she made the finals in 1989.
She could not have gotten there, though, without considerable help from Sanchez Vicario. Among her many presents was an overhead off the frame of her racket on break point in the 11th game of the second set. Navratilova had just hit a lunging forehand that sat up nicely for Sanchez Vicario and was watching from off the court when the No. 4 seed whacked it long as if she were a beginner. Duffers among the 19,000 in the stadium sympathized and groaned with the young Spaniard while Navratilova let out a big sigh of relief.
Navratilova then tied the set 6-6 and won the tiebreaker when Sanchez Vicario smacked an easy forehand wide crosscourt on the last point.
Not only did Sanchez Vicario fail to hold service in the final set, but she won only four points in the four games she served. She lost the last game at love totally on errors - a backhand in the net, a double fault, a backhand long and the final volley in the net.
Navratilova had her troubles holding, too, suffering two breaks in the third set, but she never trailed.
"It is not like I hit that great a variety of shot, but I just kept attacking and believing that that is the right way to do it. And it was. I started getting the feel on her serve and how to break it, so as long as I stayed ahead, I felt comfortable."
She charged to the net 168 times in the match, winning 97 points that way, while Sanchez Vicario approached the net only 18 times and won nine of those. Navratilova put away 24 volleys to two for Sanchez.
Navratilova said it would be tough to play that aggressively against Graf.
"She has a much better serve than Arantxa, much more difficult to attack it right off the bat," Navratilova said. "But I still can attack it. I prefer to attack to the backhand side, to the left side of the court. That plays into my game better with the backhand slice down the line and the forehand approach crosscourt.
"But on the other hand, Steffi's forehand is such an incredible force that it is hard to stay away from that. But I have beaten her before. It has been a long time since I played her, so it is just great that we finally get to play each other again."
In their last four matches, all finals, Graf beat Navratilova at Wimbledon in 1988 and 1989, in the U.S. Open in 1989, and in the Virgina Slims Championships on carpet in 1989. The first three of those went three sets, and the last one went four.
It was a bad day for the Sanchez family, as Arantxa's brother Javier lost a men's quarterfinal match to Stefan Edberg, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
A night match between Ivan Lendl and Wimbledon champion Michael Stich was suspended by rain about 11:30 p.m. with Stich up a break and serving at 4-3 in the third set. Lendl won the first set 6-3, Stich the second 6-3. It is scheduled to resume as the third match on Thursday.
"I am doing everything I can to try to win it, trying to make the best effort," said Edberg, a first-round loser last year and a fourth-round loser the two previous years. "Not that I haven't put down any effort before. I have always come here to try. But this year, you know it becomes more and more important to you to at least win it once."
Edberg is staying in a rented home on Long Island with his fiancee, rather than in the players' hotel in Manhattan, and has spent much of his summer aiming for this tournament since his semifinal loss to Michael Stich at Wimbledon.
"Even if I have been struggling, I have kept working, having in mind that the Open was coming up," he said. "I just kept working and digging in, and waiting for it to get better."