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.