Yayuk leads RI squad to Federation Cup

Yayuk leads RI squad to Federation Cup

JAKARTA (JP): Yayuk Basuki leads a team of three which
desperately needs a lucky draw to carve out another piece of
history at the Federation Cup women's tennis team championship
finals in Frankfurt, Germany.

The squad, made up by Yayuk and her talented juniors Romana
Tedjakusuma and Natalia Soetrisno, left for the July 18-24
championship yesterday without offering a worth expecting feat to
their home fans.

"We dare not predict our chances until we see the draw," non-
playing captain Deddy Tedjamukti said in a farewell party with
officials of the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) on
Wednesday.

The team's backbone Yayuk will likely play both singles and
doubles, but there is also a great possibility of pairing Romana
with her long-time partner Natalia to give Yayuk a break.

Teddy said Yayuk, currently ranked 45th in the world, is in
top form which brought her to the fourth round at the All-England
tournament in Wimbledon early this month. But Frankfurt's slow
clay court may play havoc to the serve-and-volley player.

Yayuk opted to miss the French Open in the last two years,
saying that she carried dim record at the clay-court tournament.

Indonesia moved to the second round at last year's meet after
beating Poland 2-1, but Yayuk, then world number 38, crashed to
unheralded rival whose world rankings was 155 places lower than
her.

Defending champion Spain, spearheaded by its world number two
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez,
will likely top the seeding list in the 32-field championship,
the third successive finals held in Frankfurt.

The international tennis federation ITF will impose the home-
and-away qualifying rounds as applied in the Davis Cup
competitions on the Federation Cup, starting next year. (amd)