Yayuk Basuki walks easy path at Indonesia Open

Yayuk Basuki walks easy path at Indonesia Open

JAKARTA (JP): Yayuk Basuki faces an easy walk to her fourth
successive title at the Indonesia Women's Open tennis
championships, which starts today at the Senayan tennis center.

Playing in the bottom half, the world number 29 and second
seed Yayuk evades early encounters with either Argentinean
Florencia Labat, her runner-up last year, or Elena Wagner of
Germany, her second round conqueror at the Wismilak Open in
Surabaya, East Java, in September.

The Indonesian number one will find her toughest opposition in
the form of Ann Grossman of the United States, before entering
the most awaited final meeting with the German top seed Sabine
Hack.

All top eight seeds were granted byes and will play their
second round matches tomorrow.

Yayuk will set out on her title defense campaign against the
winner of the Catalina Cristea-Laxmi Poruri match. If she wins,
the home favorite will likely have little trouble in disposing of
teammate Romana Tedjakusuma in the third round.

Up-and-down Romana, who was dumped out of the second round
match last year, takes on Kim de Weille in today's opening round.

Hack will be the only player ranked among the world's top 20
to join the US$161,000 tournament. Other top players Natalia
Zvereva of Belarus and American Mary-Joe Fernandez have all opted
to miss the one-week event, which serves as a warm-up tournament
for the Australia Open in February.

The Women's Tennis Association requires at least three players
rated in the 20s in the world rankings, or a player ranked among
the world's top 10, in the 64 player competition vying for the
Madame Soeharto trophy.

Indonesian wild card, Natalia Soetrisno, will serve as a first
round hurdle for South Korean 14th seed Park Sung-hee today.
Natalia lost to the same opponent at the Indonesia Women's
Challenger last September.

Another wild-card entrant, Enny Sulistyowati, looks likely to
face a better fate than Natalia. Making her debut, the winner of
both the senior and junior Indonesia Masters championships, Enny,
plays world number 186 Julie Steven.

The 64-strong field was filled yesterday as eight players
secured berths to the main draw after winning their qualifying
round matches. None of the six Indonesians who played the
qualifiers booked the remaining places. (amd)