Acute diarrhea knocks Yayuk out
Acute diarrhea knocks Yayuk out
JAKARTA (JP): Yayuk Basuki lost her dreams of winning her Indonesia Women's Open singles title for a record fourth time as acute diarrhea forced her to retire in yesterday's semifinal battle against Irina Spirlea of Rumania.
Playing at the hot Senayan tennis stadium, defending champion and second seed Yayuk took the opening set but was 4-6 down in the second as she opted to hand the final ticket to her sixth seed rival.
World number 43 Spirlea will race for the winner's US$26,500 prize money in today's final against top seed Sabine Hack of Germany, who scored an overpowering 6-0, 6-1 win over Maria Strandlund of Sweden in the previous semifinal match yesterday.
Yayuk clearly indicated that she was suffering from stomach problems when she took two toilet break in the second set. She had earlier complained about digestive strains during her quaterfinal match against doubles partner Nana Miyagi on Friday, but managed to march on to a three-set win.
"Yayuk began to feel bad after having a bowl of cereal for breakfast Friday morning," Suharyadi, Yayuk's coach and husband, told a press conference. "She might have put too much chilly on her meal."
Suharyadi admitted the exhibition match against Martina Navratilova on Wednesday gave Yayuk excessive pressures. "Her body could not scope with that heavy burden," he said.
Spirlea got off to a slow start yesterday, misfiring her strokes to drop her serve in the sixth game of the first set. The Rumanian bounced back in the next stage which saw both players break each other's serve in the last five games.
Yayuk should not have dropped the eighth game when she raced to 40-0 ahead. But Spirlea drilled her banging forehand to take five points in a row. She inflicted a deciding break after Yayuk netted her powerless stop ball.
"I'm quite happy that Yayuk managed at least the semifinal berth," said Suharyadi. Yayuk, who failed to show up at the conference because of medical treatment, walked away with a $6,200 cash prize.
Spirlea maintained her winning track in the doubles as her solid partnership with German Claudia Porwik disposed off struggling Swedes Strandlund and Maria Lindstrom 6-3, 6-1. The Sweden pair take on the Belgian team of Laurence Courtois and Nancy Feber, who earned a walk-over win over Yayuk and Miyagi.
The tennis extravaganza will continue with the $300,000 Indonesia Men's Open, starting tomorrow.(amd)