Yayuk Basuki goes one step better at Wimbledon
Yayuk Basuki goes one step better at Wimbledon
LONDON (Agencies): Yayuk Basuki, who has reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in four of her six previous visits, went one step better yesterday.
The 26-year-old Indonesian ruthlessly brushed aside experienced Canadian Patricia Hy-Boulais 6-0, 7-6 (7-2) for a quarterfinals showdown with either third-seeded Czech Jana Novotna or 11th-seeded American Mary Joe Fernandez.
Yayuk, who has yet to drop a set at the Championships and who has conceded only 16 games in her first four matches, posted a pre-Wimbledon warning and rose to 26th in the rankings when she reached the final at Birmingham three weeks ago -- upsetting top- seeded Romanian Irina Spirlea on the way.
The 31-year-old Cambodian-born Hy-Boulais, a former Hong Kong Fed Cup player who is ranked 61, entered the Wimbledon record books when she lost a 58-game first round match to Chanda Rubin in 1995 -- the most games ever in a women's Grand Slam singles match.
Switzerland's world number-one Martina Hingis took another step toward the Wimbledon singles crown when she beat 19th-ranked Belgian Sabine Appelmans 6-1, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.
Hingis, 16, now plays either Venezuelan Maria Vento or Czech Denisa Chladkova.
It was Hingis' third win in as many meetings with Appelmans and her 41st win of 1997 against one defeat -- her loss to Croatian Iva Majoli in last month's French Open final.
Hingis needed just 66 minutes to complete the victory - just before play was suspended by rain for the first time in four days.
Hingis said she was happy to get the match over quickly because she still had doubles and mixed doubles matches later in the day.
Hingis sailed through the first set in 27 minutes. Appelmans went up a break at 2-0 in the second, but Hingis took command again when she broke for 4-3, setting up the point with a drop shot, then tapping a backhand into the open court.
Two games later, Hingis broke Appelmans again to close out the match. Despite a swinging serve by Appelmans that pulled her off the court, Hingis stretched to hit a sliced backhand return that just dropped over the net for a winner.
"I got pretty lucky there," Hingis said. "I had almost no chance. I barely got to the ball."
Hingis remained on course to become the youngest Wimbledon women's singles champion this century. The youngest was Charlotte "Lottie" Dod, who won at the age of 15 years, 285 days in 1887.
"Nobody saw me as a favorite at the beginning of the tournament," Hingis said. "I got through pretty easily until now. I'm improving every match. I feel pretty good. The draw doesn't look too bad for me."
Appelmans said Hingis had everything it took to win the tournament.
"She's just a little better than most of us," the Belgian said. "She hits a little bit earlier, a little bit faster."
Rain
Renewed rain stopped play at Wimbledon one hour after matches started on the outside courts -- and just a few minutes after the main showcourt matches started.
It was the first rain since last Friday, when the second of two straight washouts forced Wimbledon to schedule play on the middle Sunday for only the second time in history.
Ironically, Tuesday started off as the brightest day of the tournament so far. But the rain clouds moved in just after noon. The forecast said there was the possibility of more showers in the afternoon.
After the waterlogged first week, the tournament was nearly back on schedule. With all men's and women's fourth-round matches scheduled for Tuesday, it figured to be the busiest day of the two-week tournament.