Yayuk Basuki (born 30 November 1970) is an Indonesian former professional tennis player who is now a politician. She was the highest-ever ranked tennis player from Indonesia, having reached No. 19 in singles in the WTA rankings in October 1997. She retired from playing singles in 2000, but remained an active doubles player on the circuit until 2013.
She sat in the Indonesian House of Representatives between 2014 and 2019. In January 2018, she was elected Chair of the Indonesian Olympian Association (IOA) for a four-year term. She unsuccessfully ran for re-election in 2019.
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Sporting career
She began playing tennis at the age of seven and turned professional in 1990. In 1991, she became the first Indonesian player to win a major professional tennis event when she captured the singles titles at Pattaya. She won six WTA Tour singles titles during her career (all of them in Asia). Her best singles performance at a Grand Slam event came at Wimbledon in 1997, where she reached the quarterfinals by defeating Ai Sugiyama, Inés Gorrochategui, Naoko Kijimuta and Patricia Hy-Boulais before losing to Jana Novotná.
During her career, she has recorded wins over Amélie Mauresmo, Mary Joe Fernández, Lindsay Davenport, Gabriela Sabatini, Magdalena Maleeva, Anke Huber, Iva Majoli, Anna Kournikova, Zina Garrison, and Mary Pierce. She also became only the second Indonesian woman to win the Asian Games singles gold medal, after Lita Liem Sugiarto in 1974, when she defeated Tamarine Tanasugarn in Bangkok at the 1998 games. She was the first player to be beaten by Lindsay Davenport in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, at the US Open in 1992.
She represented Indonesia at the Summer Olympic Games in 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000. 1992 in Barcelona, she defeated Mercedes Paz and Mary Pierce to reach the third round of the singles competition, where she was beaten by Jennifer Capriati.
She is also a successful doubles player, often pairing with Nana Miyagi and later Caroline Vis, and reached the top 10 (No. 9 on 6 July 1998). She won nine tour doubles titles, the most significant of which was the Canadian Open in 1997 and qualified for the season-ending WTA Championships as one of the best eight teams of the year three times, 1996–98. Her best result in doubles competition at a Grand Slam event was in the 1993 US Open, where she and partner Nana Miyagi reached the semifinals.
In the mixed doubles, Basuki reached the quarterfinals at the French Open in 1995 with Kenny Thorne as her partner. In 1997, she reached the same stage at Wimbledon, this time paired with Tom Nijssen.
Her career-high world rankings were world No. 19 in singles and No. 9 in doubles.
Political career
In the 2014 Indonesian parliamentary election, she stood for a seat in the DPR with the National Mandate Party (PAN) from Central Java I electoral district. She was elected and sat on Commission X focusing on education, sports, and history. In the 2019 election, Basuki again ran as a legislative candidate in the same electoral district. However, the party did not win enough votes and therefore she lost her seat in the parliament.
Awards
WTA Sportsmanship Award, 1996 and 1998
Female Rookie of the Year 1991, TENNIS Magazine
Indonesian Athlete of the Year 1991
Nominated as Most Impressive Newcomer 1991, WTA Tour
Special Award from President Soeharto of Indonesia for outstanding contribution to sports, 1991
Personal life
She married her coach and mixed-doubles partner Hary Suharyadi, with whom she won gold at the 1990 Asian Games, on 31 January 1994. On 23 September 1999, she gave birth to her first child. She returned to playing on the tour the following year.
WTA career finals
ITF Circuit finals
National representation
Multi-sport event (Individual)
Basuki made her debut in multi-sport event at the 1985 SEA Games, she won the women's singles bronze medal.
Performance timelines
Singles
1 includes ITF tournaments.
2 The sum of wins/losses by year records from the WTA website does not add up to the career record presented on the same website.
Doubles
1 includes ITF tournaments.
2 The sum of wins/losses by year records from the |WTA website does not add up to the career record presented on the same website.
Career earnings
* as of 12 April 2009
# does not include mixed-doubles earnings (which are included in the career total)