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)