Singer ends Yayuk's run in Eastbourne tourney
Singer ends Yayuk's run in Eastbourne tourney
EASTBOURNE, England (Agencies): Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia was another victim of an upset, this time by Germany's Christina Singer at the quarterfinals of the Eastbourne women's tennis grasscourt tournament yesterday.
The Indonesian eighth seed and last year's semifinalist went down 4-6, 4-6 in a serve-and-volley game against little known Singer, giving Yayuk a scare before her preparations for the Wimbledon championships which start next week.
It was Singer's second successive giant-killing victory after her demolition of third seed Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of Holland in Wednesday's third round.
Yayuk, 26th on the world list, lost the form that earned her a third-round win over Zina Garrison-Jackson on Wednesday. The towering German drilled her powerful strokes and made Yayuk run.
Yayuk kept her cool to save three match points in her comeback 5-7, 7-6 (10-8), 6-2 victory over Garrison-Jackson in Wednesday's game.
Singer will now meet American Chanda Rubin who notched the biggest surprise by ousting top seed Kimiko Date of Japan for a place in Sunday's final.
Rubin, who exploded into the headlines at the French Open earlier this month when she came back from trailing 0-5 and 0-40 in the final set to beat seeded Jana Novotna, was back at her giant-killing best with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Date, a semifinalist at Roland Garros.
The major quarterfinal casualties continued when experienced Nathalie Tauziat of France defeated Lori McNeil. The American, who reached the semifinals at last year's Wimbledon after beating Steffi Graf in the first round, won only six games against the 27-year-old player from Bayonne.
The other player to reach the last four was second seed Natasha Zvereva of Belarus who beat Ines Gorrochategui 6-2, 6-2.
Rafter out
Earlier in Nottingham, Australian Patrick Rafter, the winner of the equivalent tournament when it was held in Manchester last year, was sent crashing by unseeded Argentine Javier Frana in the third round of the men's tournament here on Wednesday.
The sixth-seeded world No 60 was outplayed by left-hander Frana, who knocked out new British No 1 Rusedski in the first round.
Frana took full advantage of a cold start by Rafter to gain two early breaks and after wrapping up the first set 6-2, clinched his quarter-final place in a tie-break after all games went with serve in the second.
American Tommy Ho comprehensively dismissed the 19-year-old eighth seed Marcelo Rios of Chile in straight sets but big Mal Washington tumbled 2-6, 6-7 to Japan's Shuzo Matsuoka.
In Halle, Germany, top-seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov and reigning champion Michael Stich progressed to the quarterfinals of the US$725,000 Gerry Weber Open on Wednesday amid continuing controversy over the state of the courts at the tournament.
Russian Kafelnikov beat Henrik Dreekmann of Germany 6-4, 6-2 to set up a meeting with Dutchman Paul Haarhuis, a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 winner over Patrick McEnroe of the U.S..
No. 3 seed Stich had to come from behind in a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Dutch teenager Sjeng Schalken. The 1991 Wimbledon champion now meets Richey Reneberg of the U.S., who rallied to a 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win over Frenchman Arnaud Boetsch.
But Stich was in no mood for celebration after his victory. "The grass is disastrous. You can expect awkward bounces on grass, but I don't normally miss balls by 20 centimeters," said the lanky German, who like Kafelnikov played his game under the closed roof due to rain.