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.