Yayuk blasts her way to semifinals

Yayuk blasts her way to semifinals

MONTREAL (Agencies): Indonesian unseeded Yayuk Basuki blasted
her way to the semifinals of the Canadian Open women's tennis
championships after scoring yet another upset, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5, win
over 13th seed American Amy Frazier here on Friday.

The surprise victory, Yayuk's third in a row in the US$926,250
tournament, opens up a chance of writing a piece of history in
her six-year career as she now plays joint world number one
Monica Seles, also from the U.S.

Defending champion Seles had an easy passage to the
semifinals, sending sixth seed Magdalena Maleeva packing in a 6-
4, 6-2 win.

"I gave her a lot a free points and finally she took advantage
and suddenly she was ahead 40-15 and I didn't realize it," 26-
year-old Yayuk, the second-round conqueror of Croatian world
number four Iva Majoli, said when referring to the final set.

"Then I thought, 'Oh my God, it's match point,' so I said to
myself, 'Look, I've been here for three sets now, why don't I
just give it a try one more time'", she said.

It was Yayuk's second semifinal appearance in a U.S. Open
warm-up tournament.

Yayuk has tasted Seles just once in the Australian Open third
round four years ago, when Seles was on her pinnacle as world
number one. Then Yugoslavian Seles routed Yayuk 6-1, 6-1 in just
59 minutes.

But Yayuk, filled with confidence following her giant-killing
run, could do better now. Seles, who remains under the shadow of
her co-number one Steffi Graf of Germany, has lost some of the
dazzle which shot her to the top of the world several years ago.

Seles won the Australian Open in January for the first time
since her comeback last year, but was no longer invincible. She
has suffered four losses to underrated players since then, two of
them produced by Czech Jana Novotna.

The most upsetting defeat of Seles was in the Wimbledon
second-round scored by Slovakia's Katarina Studenikova. Seles
last crashed to Novotna in the Olympic women's singles
quarterfinals.

Not satisfied

Although winning the match, but Seles did not seem satisfied
with her own playing.

"I didn't play that great," Seles said. "She was hitting the
ball pretty hard. I don't think I was doing anything very well. I
wasn't hitting too many winners ... I wasn't going for my shot.
But, when it really mattered, I played well and that's how I
won."

Maleeva blamed her serve for her loss, saying her first serve
was weak and will need improvement before the U.S. Open at the
end of this month.

Seles won last year's tournament, her first event back after
missing 27 1/2 months recovering from being stabbed during a
tournament in Hamburg, Germany in April, 1993.

Sanchez Vicario, who lost the gold medal match to Davenport in
the Olympics, stopped the run of unseeded Florencia Labat of
Argentina, 6-4, 6-4. She has not dropped a set en route to the
semifinals.

Ranked second in the world, Sanchez Vicario has reached five
finals this year, winning the Family Circle Cup Tennis in April
and the Hamburg Open in May.

"It was tough playing her," Sanchez Vicario said of her win
over the 25-year-old Labat. "She has everything, a slice, a flat
ball. It was kind of hard to read where she was going. But I went
for it. It's nice to have a tough match and be able to put it
away."

Labat said her limited experience playing in major tournaments
was a factor in her loss.

"It's not the same to play on center court," Labat said. "You
have to be used to playing there."

"In a big tournament like this, it was my best performance so
far," she added. "I played good this week. I hope I can keep
playing on this level."

Fifth seed Mary Joe Fernandez of the United States completed
her match that was suspended Thursday night in the morning by
defeating 15th-seeded Frenchwoman Tauziat, 6-1, 6-1. But the
Olympic doubles gold medalist fell in her afternoon match to
compatriot Po, 6-3, 6-2.