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.