PARIS (Reuters) - World number one Martina Hingis, two steps away from the only Grand Slam title to elude her, finds the three greats of modern women's tennis standing in her path.

In Thursday's French Open semifinal the Swiss teen-ager faces defending champion and three-time winner Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain.

Should she win, she will have to beat the winner of the other semifinal between Monica Seles and Steffi Graf in Saturday's final.

Seventh seed Sanchez-Vicario, possibly the grittiest competitor in the game, will be no easy obstacle to overcome. She has won four grand slam titles over the last decade and been a finalist eight other times.

She would almost definitely have walked off with many more titles were it not for the two celebrated women in the bottom half of the draw.

American third seed Seles plays sixth-seeded Graf with the German hunting her 22nd Grand Slam title and sixth French Open.

Seles won eight Grand Slam titles in four years before she was stabbed by a Graf fan during a tournament in Hamburg, subsequently missing more than two years of action.

She has won just one since, the 1996 Australian Open, but is primed to add to her tally.

Seles, who beat Hingis in last year's semifinal in Paris before losing to Sanchez-Vicario, knows she has her work cut out though against her nemesis.

``I haven't really seen any of Steffi's matches but I think both of us are really strong mentally and we both want to win.

``We are both playing at a really high level so whoever makes the shots on the day will win the match.

``With Steffi I have played some fantastic matches. Some of them are probably the high points of my career.''

Graf, too, is eagerly anticipating the match. ``We've had some memorable matches and I am looking forward to this one, absolutely.

``You know, against Monica it is going to be a difficult. Probably, if I'd thought hard before the tournament I wouldn't have expected to be here (in the semifinals).''

Sanchez-Vicario has played Hingis 10 times and won only once but still believes the magic of Roland Garros can help carry her through.

``I won here three times. I played three other finals here. I'm again in the semifinals. There's something special when I come here,'' said the former world number one, who named her dogs Roland and Garros.

``Even my game is getting better and better every day. I love the atmosphere, I love the city, I love the tournament.''

``I think she probably has much more pressure than myself. I'm just happy to be in the semifinals.''

Graf, Seles and Sanchez-Vicario have won 11 of the last 12 French Open titles -- the only interloper was Iva Majoli of Croatia in 1997 -- and the seventh seed sees no reason why that should not be 12 of the last 13.

``As veterans, I think it's great that we're still there, trying our best, still in a position to try to do well and win. But definitely every time it's harder.

``Well the time goes by. I mean, obviously it's 10 years later now,'' added the Sanchez-Vicario, who won her first title in 1989.

``I'm a little bit older but I still have fun. I think that's what makes me play that well.''

Hingis, 18, lost to Majoli in the 1997 final -- the year she won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open -- and reached the semifinals last year.

She thinks she knows what went wrong then and is glad she is facing Sanchez-Vicario.

``I wouldn't say I am more focused this year. It's just that probably in the last two years I wanted to win too much and was never really prepared properly. Maybe I just underestimated the players.

``But I am glad I play Arantxa in the semis. She's very dangerous here, mentally very strong.

``She plays at a different level in Paris -- I definitely have to take her seriously.''