Yayuk retains Indonesia Open title
Yayuk retains Indonesia Open title
JAKARTA (JP): Home favorite Yayuk Basuki claimed a hat-trick
at the Indonesia Women's Open tennis championships with a hard-
earned 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1) victory over second seed Florencia
Labat of Argentina yesterday.
Playing before 3,000 cheering fans at Senayan tennis stadium,
third seed Yayuk worked an aggressive serve-and-volley game for
two hours and 15 minutes on her way to taking the winner's
US$18,000 purse and Madame Soeharto's trophy.
Yayuk, who dropped a game in the decider, managed to settle
her nerves as the left-hander Labat reached 5-4 with her own
service to come. The Indonesian used a brilliant approach to
volley past her spirited rival for a break and an equalizer.
The tie-break was no longer a nervy job for Yayuk as she
continued running to the net for a 6-2 lead before dashing
Labat's attempts to make a retaliation for her 6-2, 6-2 defeat at
the 1992 Wimbledon.
"Labat played pretty well, but I found Nicole Arendt was my
toughest hurdle," said Yayuk of her beaten rival who currently is
ranked 32 in the world.
Yayuk fought hard to win her last three matches of the
$100,000 tournament, including the quarterfinal duel against
Arndt of the United States, in three sets. She lost three match
points against top seed Wang Shi-ting of Chinese Taipei before
posting a 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 victory in Saturday's semifinals.
Both Yayuk and Labat set off yesterday's final with shaky
performances. Each dropped their first two games to level the tie
at 2-2 but Labat, who beat fourth seed Kristin Radford of
Australia 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 in the final four, lobbed out her
forehand return to allow another break in the fifth game.
Labat dominated a number of long baseline rallies in the
second set, while Yayuk, misfired several backhand slices after
letting up some of her pressure at the net. Yayuk double faulted
in the sixth game for a break as Labat easily sailed to forcing a
decider.
Yayuk, who slipped to world number 48 after blowing her first
two Asian outings this month, will likely rejoin the world's best
40 players. The winner of the annual event earned 100 points and
qualified for the $750,000 German Open in Berlin next week.
Yayuk refused to play in the May 9-16 clay court tournament as
well as the French Open grand slam championships in Rolland
Garros, Paris, saying that she would specially prepare herself
for the following grand slam at Wimbledon. Yayuk reached the
fourth round in the last two grass court events.
In the doubles event, third seed mixed nationality pair of
Arendt and Radford disposed of fourth seeds Kerry Anne-Guse of
Australia and Andrea Strnadova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2 for
the top $6,000 cash prize.
Anne-Guse and Strnadova dumped the top seeded doubles team of
Yayuk and Nana Miyagi of Japan in Saturday's semifinals 7-6 (8-
6), 6-2, while Arendt and Radford beat Australian second seeds
Jenny Byrne and Rachel McQuillan 6-3, 6-4. (amd)