Yayuk through to round four at Wimbledon
Yayuk through to round four at Wimbledon
LONDON (Agencies): Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki brought some
sunshine to Wimbledon's rain-drenched championship yesterday by
reaching the fourth round, only the third Asian woman to achieve
the feat.
Yayuk, who has reached the fourth round in four of the last
five years, beat Japan's Naoko Kijimuta 6-2, 6-3 and now faces
Canada's Patricia Hy-Boulais. If she continues her perfect record
against Cambodian-born Hy-Boulais, Yayuk will join Japan's Kimiko
Date as one of only two Asian female quarterfinalists in
Wimbledon's 120-year history.
Her chances of advancing even further increased with the shock
defeat of second seed Monica Seles in a see-saw 6-0, 4-6, 6-8 to
23rd-ranked Sandrine Testud of France. Seles was in Yayuk's
section of the draw.
The 25-year-old French player now faces either Austrian Judith
Wiesner or her compatriot Nathalie Tauziat for a quarterfinals
spot.
"I started out well the third set," Seles said. "I had the
momentum going and then let it go. There were points I played
really aggressive and points where I stopped doing that for no
reason.
"All the matches I've lost this year I've been up 5-2. It
seems like its been a magic number for me. I need to close out
the matches."
Seles seemed in complete control after sailing through the
first set without dropping a game, but the Frenchwoman recovered
in the second to force the decisive third set.
Seles moved out to a 5-2 lead and served for the match at 5-3
but could not convert. She seemed to lose her way after the
umpire made an overrule that cost her a point in that game.
Wimbledon's normally sedate Centre Court erupted like a Cup
Final on Sunday as a raucous crowd enjoyed a feast of extra-day
tennis including a marathon success for home-boy Tim Henman.
After two washed-out days last week, the All-England Club
opened its doors on Sunday's rest day and the fans, many of whom
queued all night for cut-price tickets, saw the 14th-seeded
Briton beat Paul Haarhuis 6-7 6-3 6-2 4-6 14-12 in six minutes
short of four hours.
Football-style chanting accompanied the win, which put two
Britons into the fourth round after Greg Rusedski's win over
compatriot Andrew Richardson 6-3 6-4 6-4 on a hardly less noisy
new Number One court.
"I've never experienced anything like it before ... that
noise. It does give you an amazing buzz to have all those people
screaming your name," Henman said.
Only one men's seed fell on Sunday, South African Wayne
Ferreira, but six women were blown away, blaming the weather, the
grass and bad luck for their misfortune.
Ferreira could not stop Cedric Pioline, the temperamental
Frenchman, who can be a match for anyone when on song.
Women
The women fared less well, with fifth seed Lindsay Davenport,
sixth seed Amanda Coetzer, seventh seed Anke Huber, former
champion Conchita Martinez, seeded 10, number 14 Brenda Schultz-
McCarthy and 16 Barbara Paulus all departing.
Olympic champion Davenport said the long wait for her second
round match put her badly off stride as she went down 7-5 6-2 to
18-year-old Czech Denisa Chladkova.
"This week was so weird. I played my first match Monday and to
wait to Sunday to play again was a real throw-off," she said.
South African Coetzer, losing 6-2 6-1 to an equally diminutive
Patricia Hy Boulais of Canada, said she had not had enough
practice on the slippery surface, where the ball went fast and
stayed low.
Martinez, brought up on the slow clay of Spain, was served and
volleyed out of her match with veteran Czech Helena Sukova 6-4 6-
2.
The 1.88 meter Sukova, 32, who has reached the quarterfinals
here five times in 16 appearances, has a Wimbledon pedigree as
her mother Vera was a finalist here in 1962, but her next match
will be fascinating.
Her fourth round opponent is 16-year-old Anna Kournikova who
staged another precocious comeback to beat Huber 3-6 6-4 6-4 in
the final singles match of the day.
Schultz-McCarthy earlier lost 6-2 6-3 to Belgium's Sabine
Appelmans, who moved better and hit the ball earlier than the
tall Dutchwoman. Austria's Paulus went down 5-7 6-3 6-3 to
Japan's Naoko Kijimuta.
But Sanchez's sister Aranxta, the eighth seed and finalist
here the last two years, did not follow suit. She beat
Switzerland's Emmanuelle Gagliardi 6-4 6-2 to advance to the
third round.
Martina Hingis remains on course to become Wimbledon's
youngest singles champion this century. So does another 16-year-
old, Anna Kournikova.
On a day when six seeded women were beaten, the top-seeded
Hingis became the first player to reach the fourth round with a
6-1, 6-3 win Sunday over American Nicole Arendt.
Hingis' route to the semifinals looks easy. Only two seeded
players remain in her half of the draw - Majoli and No. 12 Irina
Sprilea of Romania. And Hingis is just as likely to meet
Kournikova in the semifinals and not the seeds.
Kournikova, the young Russian with the supermodel looks is
showing herself to be a natural player on grass.
"No, you never feel invincible," said Hingis when she was
asked about her chances. "I don't feel like that at all."