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)