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)