Yayuk's dream of team gold medal terminated
Yayuk's dream of team gold medal terminated
HIROSHIMA, Japan (Agencies): Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki yesterday spearheaded a women's tennis team which succumbed to the same opponent for the second successive Asian Games.
Yayuk crashed to an easy 1-6, 4-6 defeat to Naoko Sawamatsu in Japan's 3-0 drubbing of Indonesia, a repeat of their duel four years ago in Beijing. Earlier, hometown heroine Mana Endo whipped Romana Tedjakusuma 6-1, 6-0 in the first singles match.
Endo, 23, who was born in this western Japanese city, said she was excited to win in front of her friends and family.
"I feel great," she said after the match. "This has been a dream of mine to win in front of my friends."
Endo, ranked 28th in the world, easily beat fellow Asian Games debutant Romana in a one-sided match which lasted less than one hour.
"I felt lots of pressure with everyone cheering for me but I just focused on the ball and not the gold," Endo said.
Yayuk evaded a clash against her Japanese doubles partner Nana Miyagi as Romana and Natalia Soetrisno were hammered 2-6, 1-6 by Miyagi and Ai Sugiyama in the meaningless doubles match.
The losing semi-finalists, China and Taiwan, both got bronze medals.
The 21-year-old Sawamatsu, ranked 25th in the world, also had a relatively easy time beating her world number 27 opponent in what should have been a very even match.
Yayuk, 23, who reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open with Miyagi last year, had problems getting her first serve in. She didn't win a service game until game nine of the second set.
Sawamatsu broke her four times in both sets. The second set was close only because Sawamatsu also started having problems holding serve and she was broken three times.
Yayuk rallied after losing the first set and was taking command with her angled slices and fierce forehands until losing concentration in the eighth game.
Indonesian supporters kicked up a fuss when a linesman failed to call Sawamatsu's wide forehand which allowed the Japanese to go 40-15 ahead.
Sawamatsu won two long rallies and then broke Yayuk by running down a nice drop shot to hit a cross-court winner.
Yayuk did not complain about the linecall.
"We were just happy to be in the final," she said. "This year Japan is the toughest in Asia, lots of them are top ranked professional players."
Endo will not be playing in the singles competition which begins tomorrow because Japan's two players will be Kimiko Date, who is ranked number 10 in the world, and Sawamatsu.
Instead Endo will team up with Miyagi in doubles which, along with men's and women's singles, begins tomorrow.
In the absence of Japan's number one Shuzo Matsuoka, the top- ranked player in the men's tournament is India's Leander Paes, a former Wimbledon junior champion who is ranked 155th in the world.
Date has been criticized in the Japanese media for deciding to miss the team event and play only in the singles competition.