Yayuk Basuki still has a chance for Atlanta Games
Yayuk Basuki still has a chance for Atlanta Games
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's tennis hopes at this year's Olympic Games in Atlanta are still alive even though Yayuk Basuki, the country's best women's singles player, dropped in the rankings this week.
Wailan Walalangi, former top national player and coach, told The Jakarta Post that Yayuk's present rank of 38th in the world will not influence her participation in the Olympics.
"The Olympics committee will announce the names of the tennis players at the beginning of April.
"Even if she dropped to 50th, she would be able to participate in the Olympics," he said, adding that 64 players will take part in the Olympic tennis competition.
Yayuk's ranking was dropped from 24th at the beginning of this year to 38th this week.
Wailan said that Yayuk still has three more tournaments left, which are expected to improve her world ranking.
"She will go to Canada and Los Angeles to take part in two tournaments then she'll return for the Indonesian Women's Open and the Federation Cup by the end of April," he said.
Wailan said the Federation Cup match between Indonesia and Belgium will take place on April 27 and 28 on the center court at the Senayan tennis complex.
"Yayuk has a good chance against the Belgian players, especially in the doubles if Romana returns from the United States," he said.
Romana Tedjakusuma, 300th in the world, is still studying in the United States. She rarely takes part in international tournaments and her rank has dropped since 1993, when she was 78th in the world.
Wailan said two more junior tennis players will be picked up to accompany Yayuk and Romana.
"We have six candidates for the Federation Cup. They are Mima Cernovita, Wine Prakusya, Lisa Andriani, Agustine Limanto, Natalia Sutrisno and Enny Sulistyowati," he said.
Wailan said they will be selected in March and will undergo a training program the following month.
"They will all take part in the Women's Open as a warm up before the Federation Cup match," he said. (05)