Yayuk downs van Roost, now faces Hingis

Yayuk downs van Roost, now faces Hingis

MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters): Belgium's Dominique van Roost
became the sixth women's seed to fall at the Australian Open when
she was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki yesterday.

The biggest upset of the day came on the men's side however
when world number two Pat Rafter, the local favorite yielded in
four sets to unseeded Spaniard Alberto Berasategui, 6-7 7-6 6-2
7-6 in a little under three hours.

In a closely fought match, van Roost hit more winners than
Yayuk, but the 14th-seeded Belgian gave away the contest with a
pile of mistakes, finally losing it with a forehand straight into
the net.

Van Roost was an unseeded quarterfinalist at the Australian
Open last year and started off this season on a high note,
winning a tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, and making it to
the final at an event in Tasmania.

The 24th-ranked Yayuk's victory puts three Asian women in the
final 16; her, 16th seed Ai Sugiyama and Thailand's Tamarine
Tanasugarn, who posted the biggest upset in the women's draw by
beating fourth seed Iva Majoli Friday.

Yayuk next faces top seed Martina Hingis tomorrow. The Swiss
top seed earlier beat Russian starlet Anna Kournikova.

Defending champion Hingis, at 17 a year older than Kournikova,
beat the Russian 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, dropping a set for the first time
in the tournament but finishing strongly to close out the match
with a decisive smash at the net.

The Russian rallied in the second set, breaking her Swiss
opponent's serve in the 10th game to force the center-court match
into a third-set decider.

However, once Hingis secured the crucial break to go 5-4 up in
the last set, she powered her way to victory.

"She served very well that (final) game. She really attacked
all the balls and I was behind the baseline," Kournikova said.

The match was a promoter's delight, with thousands of fans
screaming support for the blonde-haired Kournikova, who became
the latest pin-up girl of tennis after reaching the Wimbledon
semifinals last year.

Hingis joined two other major seeds -- former champion Mary
Pierce and two-time finalist Arantxa Sanchez Vicario -- in the
final 16.

U.S. Open champion Rafter had survived two grueling encounters
against Americans Jeff Tarango and Todd Martin in earlier rounds
and had little left in reserve against the Spaniard.

Berasategui, hugging the baseline and using his zipping,
wristy forehand to devastating effect, beat Rafter 6-7 7-6 6-2 7-
6 in slightly under three hours.

"Mentally, it's hard to keep getting up," said Rafter. "I had
my chances and didn't take them. That's the story."

"I never felt comfortable from the word go and it showed."

The result was good news for Andre Agassi, the former world
number one who meets Berasategui in the fourth round and looks to
have an increasingly clear run through the bottom of the men's
draw.

Andre Agassi took another step on the road to tennis
redemption.

The former world number one and mercurial Marcelo Rios of
Chile both sped into the fourth round with straightforward wins
over outclassed opponents.

Agassi, embarking on a journey back to the heights of men's
tennis, completed a sparkling 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 win over Italian
Andrea Gaudenzi in just 67 minutes on center court.

World number eight Rios and ninth seed disposed of Australian
qualifier Andrew Ilie 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

Fifth seed Pierce breezed through the early stages of the
tournament but faced sterner opposition from Belarussian Olga
Barabanschikova. The 1995 Open champion triumphed 7-5, 6-3 to set
up a likely quarterfinals against Hingis.

Pierce, runner-up last year to Hingis, next faces world number
32 Henrieta Nagyova, a 6-7 (1-7), 7-5, 6-2 winner over Elena
Likhovtseva.

Sanchez Vicario swept into the fourth round with a
comprehensive 6-2 6-3 defeat of Japan's Rika Hiraki. The Spaniard
meets another Japanese player in the fourth round after 16th seed
Ai Sugiyama struggled past Poland's Magdalena Grzybowska 7-6 (7-
5), 1-6, 6-4.

World number eight and ninth seed Marcelo Rios of Chile
disposed of Australian qualifier Andrew Ilie 6-2 6-3 6-2.
Frenchmen Nicolas Escude, Guillaume Raoux and Lionel Roux, also
made it to the fourth round to join compatriot Cedric Pioline in
a strong French showing.

Escude turned around a two-set deficit to beat Richey Reneberg
of the United States, Roux ousted talented Moroccan Karim Alami,
and Raoux downed Wayne Black of Zimbabwe in straight sets.