Big challenge no hurdle for Yayuk at Acura

Big challenge no hurdle for Yayuk at Acura

MANHATTAN BEACH, California (Agencies): Powerful serves
displayed by Yayuk Basuki claimed another major casualty at the
Acura Classic tennis championships on Friday as the Indonesian
toppled fourth seed Lindsay Davenport of the United States for
her second semifinal appearance of the year.

Unseeded Yayuk drilled her belting serves to put Davenport out
of the US$430,000 tournament with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 win. The
Indonesian world number 33 struck three aces in her opening
service game and 10 in all, as Davenport struggled to work out
where the ball was going.

Yayuk, who reached her first semifinals this year at the
Indonesia Open last February, has now chalked up a notable scalp
over a player ranked among world's top ten twice. A spirited
Yayuk left Argentina's Federation Cup team in jeopardy when she
outgunned world number seven Gabriela Sabatini in April.

"She served really well," Davenport said after the match. "I
was holding my own serve OK, but it's so hard to break her. She
mixes up the pace a lot, and I couldn't tell where she was going
to go with her serve. She has a spin which is really unusual and
it's hard to read."

The Indonesian looks certain to make a great leap on her
ranking when the World Tennis Association announces the players'
rankings tomorrow.

Yayuk, whose natural play led her to her fourth appearance in
Wimbledon fourth round last month, now sets up a semifinal clash
against Spain's world number three Conchita Martinez, who had
little trouble in disposing of Germany's Anke Huber 6-1, 7-5.

Both Yayuk and Martinez will have their fifth meeting, with
Yayuk seeking her only first win to break the Spanish jinx. Yayuk
last succumbed to the Spaniard in three sets in the Toray Pan
Pacific Open quarterfinals last February.

American Chanda Rubin produced another upset on Friday when
she bounced back to edge out third seed Sabatini 6-7 (0-7), 7-6
(7-3), 6-0. It was the American's first win in seven meetings
with Sabatini.

Rubin, seeded 10th here, will play top seed Arantxa Sanchez
Vicario of Spain for a place in today's final. Sanchez Vicario
struggled before overcoming Natasha Zvereva of Belarus 6-2, 3-6,
6-4.

After the first game in the decider, Sabatini received
treatment for a pain that developed in her right heel. The
Argentinean, who had served well and struck some spectacular
forehand winners, failed to compete as strongly in the final set,
but refused to lay the blame on her injury.

"She was coming in to the net so many times and just went for
it, and she served very well. She played smart and deserved to
win," Sabatini said. "I was surprised she played so well all the
time, because usually she can play for some moments but not the
whole match."

Michaels win

In Mason, Ohio, two Michaels, Stich and Chang, came back from
the brink of defeat to capture quarterfinal wins at the $1.8
million ATP Championship, Stich over Pete Sampras and Chang over
Jim Courier.

Under clear skies and a full moon, the fourth-seeded and two-
time defending champion Chang scrambled back from two match
points down in the second-set tiebreaker to take a 3-6, 7-6 (8-
6), 7-5 victory over the 11th-seeded Courier.

Earlier, in boiling heat, the eighth-seeded Stich of Germany
saved a match point with an ace down the middle at 30-40 in the
10th game of the second set and ended up a 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-3),
6-1 winner over an exhausted Sampras, the second seed.

The ace was one of Stich's 27 in the match to Sampras's six.

After losing that match point the second-ranked Sampras wilted
and strained his way through a third set.

"I just felt tired," Sampras said after the 2 hour, 2 minute
match. "I was pretty hot and I was struggling with it a little
more than he was."

The hot, humid weather didn't take a toll on top-seeded
American Andre Agassi, who captured a 6-3, 6-4 quarterfinal
victory over 50th-ranked Renzo Furlan of Italy. Agassi now faces
13th-seeded Thomas Enqvist who completed a triumphant hat trick
over Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia. Big serving Ivanisevic folded
to the Swede 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, his third loss in a row within just a
month.