McGrath is the best bet for a shock

A QUICK glance at their hobbies might give the impression that Steffi Graf listing modern art and music compared to other sports for the rest is by far the most cerebral of this afternoon's women's semi finalists at Wimbledon. While Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has had little trouble powering her way to this stage of the competition, however, the two outsiders have boxed clever to reach the last four, although their greatest tactical tests to date will come today.

Kimiko Date and Meredith McGrath have both gone well beyond what might have been expected of them here at Wimbledon already and there is a strong likelihood that both will make their exits today. After almost two weeks, though, in which barely a day has lacked a significant upset of some kind. there are few left around here who would predict a repeat of last year's final with any great degree of confidence.

If they go close to their best then Graf and Sanchez Vicario should both progress without too much bother, but their opponents are each capable of causing the surviving favourites difficulties, with the Spaniard looking more vulnerable than her rival.

The fourth seed plays McGrath, a player who has made far more of an impact in the doubles game over the years and who might be hampered by the fact that, going into yesterday, she was the only player at the championships to be still involved in three competitions.

In the singles, however, the 25 year old expected little out of the fortnight, revealing after Tuesday's victory against Mary Joe Fernandez that "I was just hoping to win my first round match". She managed that with a considerable amount of ease against Mana Endo of Japan and followed the performance up with a fine 7-6, 2- 6 6-3 defeat of South Africa's Amanda Coetzer, since which she has only found herself embroiled in a third set on one occasion.

That McGrath, an injury prone fitness fanatic who climbs mountains in her spare time (we're talking Kilimanjaro here, folks) has prospered here these past 10 days should not be entirely surprising for she had in 1994, beaten Martina. Navratilova who admitted that she had been completely outplayed on the way to the title at Eastbourne, while three weeks ago she opened her preparations for these championships by winning Birmingham. At the All England Club she holds the distinction of being the only player ever to win three junior doubles titles in a row.

It's no coincident that these feats were all achieved on grass. The American, appearing for the first time in a Grand Slam semifinal, certainly has a game well suited to the surface with a strong, although not especially quick serve complemented by a great willingness to move in behind it to the net, where she tends to pick up a lot of points, particularly on the backhand.

If Sanchez Vicario hits well, finds her distance and keeps her opponent out at the baseline then she should move fairly smoothly to a third win in three meetings over the 25 year old. If, on the other hand, she opts for a first set siesta, as she has done on a couple of her previous outings in these championships, she may find it a little more difficult than before to dig herself out of trouble using a game that is ultimately a great deal more powerful than pretty.

in the other semi final Graft should prove to have far too much going for her to suffer a shock at this particular stage. She her a week or so to find her best form on grass and sure enough she marked the start of week two here by turning in a brilliant performance against the games best teenager, Martina Hingis.

In terms of power, reach and range of shots the German would appear to hold all of the aces, but for all of that Date has proven herself to be an increasingly gritty competitor, digging in for the long haul when things look bad and often extracting a result from unpromising circumstances.

With seven years as a tour professional and six singles titles under her belt the former world number four, who has already guaranteed her return to the top 10 this week, is certainly not lacking in experience. What she lacking, though, is height she is only five feet four inches and an established record of beating the women ranked above her.

This season she has been beaten by Lindsay Davenport, at the New South Wales and French Opens, Conchita Martinez at Indian Wells and Graf in straight sets at the Lipton although her defeat of 1994 champion Martinez here earlier this week will have been a considerable boost to her confidence.

She did beat Graf 12-10 in the final set of their last meeting, a Federation Cup match on home soil in April, to score her first win in seven encounters with the world number one. Date's darting speed around the court along with an outstanding ability to turn the power of her opponent to her own. advantage might just see her through if the defending champion performs poorly.

On the strength of the last week, though, that seems unlikely. Graf has claimed to be injured but then she almost always does the only time in the last five years she has admitted to being fit at Wimbledon was 1994 when she lost to Lori McNeil in the opening round and her knee should prove strong enough this afternoon to carry her through to an eighth final in 10 years and, probably, her seventh title.