TENNIS / AUSTRALIAN OPEN : Graf Beats Herself but Refuses to Lose

Steffi Graf clunked her head with her racket and survived 39 errors today at the Australian Open, but the “new” Graf, teen-ager Anke Huber, succumbed to a twisted ankle.

Graf, the two-time defending women’s champion, clutched her head several times after accidentally hitting herself with the most powerful forehand in women’s tennis. She recovered to beat Soviet Leila Meskhi, 6-4, 6-1, and advance to the round of 16.

“I hit myself quite hard. Maybe it woke me up,” Graf said.

Huber, a 15-year-old West German who shows much of the promise that Graf did at the same age, played a tough match before falling to 13th-seeded Italian Raffaella Reggi, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

Looking ahead to facing the real Graf, Reggi quipped: “It’s not like I can look at it and expect to win in straight sets. It’s not like I can look at it and say, ‘OK, now who’s in the quarters?’ ”

Defending men’s champion Ivan Lendl kicked himself for his five service breaks in the second and third sets, but settled down for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Czechoslovakia’s Karel Novacek to reach the round of 16.

Kimiko Date, a Japanese teen-ager eight inches shorter than 6-foot Pam Shriver but much quicker to the net and less error-prone, upset the 11th-seeded American, 6-4, 6-3.

Shriver, 27 and in her 13th year as a professional, was asked where she goes from here after losing to the unseeded 19-year-old Date.

“To the Barrier Reef,” Shriver quipped.

Former Stanford player Patty Fendick upset No. 5 Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, while in men’s play, 18-year-old Pete Sampras of Rancho Palos Verdes beat Australia’s Todd Woodbridge, 7-5, 6-4, 6-2.