DATE BECOMES HABSUDOVA'S LATEST UPSET VICTIM.

Byline: Joe Jares Daily News Staff Writer

Out of Central and Eastern Europe - the fertile tennis lands that produced Martina Navratilova, Hana Mandlikova, Helena Sukova and Olga Morozova - comes another Slavic woman who could very well earn ovations: Karina Habsudova.

The 23-year-old Slovakian, who in six months has moved up 77 rungs to No. 21 in the world, upset No. 3-seed Kimiko Date of Japan 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 Friday in the quarterfinals of the $450,000 Acura Classic in Manhattan Beach.

Tonight in the semifinals, she will play Anke Huber of Germany, who struggled past Irina Spirlea of Romania 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4. Habsudova has beaten Huber twice this year in straight sets.

In the afternoon semi today, world No. 1 Steffi Graf of Germany will play either Lindsay Davenport or Amanda Coetzer.

The strangest and perhaps most important game in the Habsudova-Date match came late in the third set. Habsudova led 4-2, 40-0. Then 40-15. Then 40-30.

To make a long game short, it went to deuce five times and Habsudova had seven game points she couldn't cash in. Finally, on the eighth game point, Date hit a backhand return out.

Habsudova broke easily in the next game to win, helped by the dispirited Date's two match-closing double faults.

``I really had to play point by point,'' said Habsudova, ``not to think about the score anymore. And that's what helped me. . . . I think that was the most important game, because that would have gotten her back in the match.''

If Habsudova isn't a household name back in Bratislava (the nation's capital), she is close to it.

Most of the tennis stars from what used to be Czechoslovakia - Navratilova, Mandlikova, Ivan Lendl, Jan Kodes - hail from what is now the Czech Republic. Quick, clever Miroslav Mecir, who comes from Habsdova's hometown of Bojnice, was the greatest Slovakian player until she came along.

Habsudova is the first Slovakian woman to reach the top 20 (she was at No. 20 briefly) and the first to reach the quarters of a Grand Slam (this year's French Open).

At the Lipton earlier this year, when she was ranked only No. 98, she upset No. 3 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Equipped with the usual clay-courter's assortment of hard ground strokes, Habsudova's immediate goal, apart from winning the $80,000 first prize here at the Manhattan Country Club, is to get back in the top 20.

``And after I reach the top 20,'' she said, ``I'm going to set a new goal, to be seeded at the U.S. Open. . . . But if not here, then at the Australian Open. Basically get to the top 16.''

``Yes, I think she's got a great chance to reach the top level of play,'' said Date. ``I think she was playing really well today.''Habsudova perhaps would have been perched on a higher rung already but had to drop off the WTA Tour for three months in 1993 with pneumonia, and in 1994 suffered injuries to her left ankle and left Achilles' tendon.

``I wasn't as good-ranked as I am now,'' she said with a bright smile, ``but I was 24 when I started having the problems.''

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Photo

Photo: Karina Habsudova of Slovakia returns a shot againstKimiko Date en route to a three-set victory.

Associated Press