Yayul waltzes into tennis quarterfinals
Yayul waltzes into tennis quarterfinals
By Primastuti Handayani
BANGKOK (JP): Indonesia's tennis queen Yayuk Basuki opened her
campaign in devastating fashion for the women's singles gold
medal at the 13th Asian Games on Sunday.
Armed with blistering serves and volleys, world number 58
Yayuk was in another class from Tayana Babina of Kazakhstan. She
did not lose a game in the second-round match at the Muang Thong
Thani sports complex which lasted only 30 minutes.
Despite the easy win which earned her a quarterfinal berth,
Yayuk appeared disappointed with the lack of challenge from an
opponent she had expected to provide her with a tune-up for the
rest of the tournament.
"She's not as tough as I expected. She didn't even fight at
all," the third seed said after the match.
Babina, who beat Nida Waseem of Pakistan in the first round on
Saturday, was kept running throughout the match and had no answer
for Yayuk's strokes.
In the quarterfinals, Yayuk will play Iroda Tulyaganova of
Uzbekistan who upset seventh seeded Haruka Inoue of Japan 6-4, 6-
3 in another second-round match.
Yayuk's coach and husband Suharyadi warned that the Indonesian
best women's singles player could face an uneasy encounter with
the 16-year-old rookie.
Indonesian team manager Benny Mailili was upbeat that Yayuk
would overcome Tulyaganova.
"She (Tulyaganova) committed too many errors in her win. If
Yayuk maintains her form, there is no chance for Tulyaganova to
continue her giant killing run."
He added Yayuk would need only to force long rallies to wear
out her teenage opponent's patience.
If she wins her quarterfinal match, Yayuk will have a shot for
a revenge from her defeat to Li Fang of China in the women's team
event on Thursday.
Second seed Li was untroubled in beating Jeon Mi-ra of South
Korea 6-3, 7-5, as was top seed and home favorite Tamarine
Tanasugarn who dispatched Maricris Fernandez of the Philippines
6-3, 6-3.
Wang Shi-ting was the other seeded player to fall on Sunday.
The Taiwanese fourth seed lost to China's second-string Yi Jing-
Qian 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 9-7 in a marathon battle lasting over two
hours.
In the men's doubles, Indonesian unseeded pair of Bonit
Wiryawan and Sulistyo Wibowo had an easy path to the second round
in beating Liu Cheng-Yung and Wang Chih-Ping of Chinese Taipei 6-
2, 6-2.
"The win came as no surprise because we've beaten them several
times," said Sulistyo.
However, the Indonesian pair will have an uphill challenge in
the second round against the second seeded duo of Mahesh Bhupathi
and Fasal Syed-Uddin of India.
"We have a chance to win, but I think it's small. Bhupathi is
a very good player. His serves and strokes are difficult to
return. He's like an eagle," Sulistyo said.
Bhupathi usually teams up with Leander Paes who is missing the
Asian Games due to injury. The absence of Paes cost India the
men's team gold medal it won in the 1994 Games in Hiroshima,
Japan.
Paes and Bhupathi are ranked third in the world.
Sulistyo said he was disappointed with the tough draw.
"If only we maintained our ranking, we could have evaded an
early meeting with the favorites."
Indonesia said goodbye to its chance of winning a medal in the
mixed doubles event with the loss of both pairings.
Liza Andriyani and Bonit Wiryawan won a set but finally went
out in a 6-1, 1-6, 3-6 defeat to eighth seeded Takahiro Terachi
and Rika Hiraki. Indonesia's other team of Yayuk and Sulistyo
lost to Vadim Kutsenko and Iroda Tulyaganova 5-7, 4-6.