Yayuk and Irawati go to circuit final

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's former number one player Yayuk Basuki demonstrated her world-class quality in her comeback to professional tennis after a one-year maternity leave in 1999.

Partnered with Irawati Moerid Iskandar, who is also a national old hand, they both cruised to the women's doubles final of the US$10,000 Indonesia Women's Circuit-1 after an easy 6-1, 6-2 win over Satoko Kurioka and Remi Tezuka of Japan on Saturday.

The Indonesians, who received wild cards to compete, will challenge the South Korean pair of Choi Young-ja and Kim Eun-sook on Sunday's final at the Kemayoran Tennis Center in Central Jakarta.

Second seeds Choi and Kim outclassed their fellow countrywomen Chung Yang-jin and Lee Eun-jeong 6-3, 6-1 in Saturday's semifinals.

As of Saturday, Yayuk and Irawati had not lost a set since the first round. In the Women's Circuit-2 next week, Yayuk has planned to play in both the singles and doubles events.

In the singles event, top seed Lara Van Rooyen of South Africa had to sweat it out to defeat Jeon Mi-ra of South Korea 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinal.

Van Rooyen will fight number seven seed Chung Yang-jin of South Korea, who beat teammate Choi 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday to clinch the final berth.

Indonesia's singles players had earlier crashed out of the tournament. (ivy)