Yayuk loses, giving Belgium Fed Cup victory
Yayuk loses, giving Belgium Fed Cup victory
JAKARTA (JP): Yayuk Basuki contributed to Indonesia's day of
mourning yesterday as she slipped to a straight-set defeat that
gave Belgium a convincing 5-0 Fed Cup win.
Making her 12nd yearly appearance in the Federation Cup,
Indonesia's number one women's player simply failed to match the
power game of the Belgian world number 20, who wrapped up a 7-5,
6-4 win to give her side an unbeatable 3-0 lead.
Belgium widened the gap when Dominique van Roost overpowered
Romana Tedjakusuma 6-2, 6-0 in the second reverse singles. The
Belgians completed this thrashing easily as substitute doubles
team of Laurence Courtois and Nancy Feber dropped only three
games in beating the Indonesian pair of Liza Andriyani and Wynne
Prakusya.
In Saturday's matches, Yayuk crashed to a surprising defeat to
Belgian number two van Roost 4-6, 7-5, 5-7 in a marathon game
played in a full-packed Senayan tennis indoor stadium. Romana,
taking a break from her school commitment in the United States,
also failed to live up to Indonesia's expectations with a 1-6, 0-
6 trouncing administered by Appelmans.
The Fed Cup defeat dealt a heavy blow to Indonesia, which has
yet to heal the wounds of an upset Davis Cup home defeat to China
early this month. As if to add insult to injury, the Davis Cup
players look certain to skip a do-or-die playoff match at Taipei
this September, when they don their provincial colors in the
National Games.
Surprise
"I was surprised. We were hoping to win three points but we
didn't expect they would come that soon," Belgian non-playing
captain Steve Martens said after Appelmans sealed Indonesia's
fate.
Yayuk and company will now have to survive a playoff against
either the Czech Republic or Canada, scheduled for July 6 and 7.
At the same time, Belgium will play a World Group qualifying
match.
No silence was observed in honor of Madame Tien Soeharto who
died a few hours before the match yesterday, but the occasion was
clearly marked with both Indonesian and Belgian national flags at
half mast.
Playing before tiny crowds, Yayuk played an erratic game with
faulty serves and a number of unnecessary mistakes in the decider
against Appelmans which lasted almost two hours yesterday.
The number of spectators shrunk drastically to only around 300
following Yayuk's upset defeat to van Roost on Saturday.
A cool Appelmans, in contrast, played almost flawlessly,
venturing to the net persistently to beat Yayuk on her baseline
in a duel billed as the battle of titans.
Style
The Belgian number one lost her composure only after she had
finished her job in style. She raised her hands to the sky with a
jubilant scream, before letting Martens kiss her in an emotional
scene.
Appelmans said that Indonesia relied too much to Yayuk in the
Fed Cup encounter, the first pitting the two countries against
each other. "All the pressures was on Yayuk. We have four good
players so we have bigger chances to win than Indonesia,"
Appelmans said.
But Yayuk denied that she had born all Indonesia's burden. "I
don't feel under pressure. I am in the same situation as I was in
the past few years. I think we have the best combination we have
ever had now," she said.
Indonesian non-playing captain Suharyadi said that he is
considering maintaining this team for July's playoff. "We will
have an internal meeting with the national tennis board to decide
this matter," said Suharyadi, who is also Yayuk's husband.
Chairman of the board, Wimar Witoelar, agreed with Suharyadi
that keeping Yayuk and Romana for the playoff was a good idea.
"Romana will have six weeks of preparations to get into top form
by July," Wimar said. (05)