Andrian terminates Bates' giant-killing run

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's Davis Cup hero Andrian Raturandang came back from the brink of losing the first set to knock Australian giant-killer Andrew Bates out of the Indonesian Satellite men's tennis circuit here yesterday.

Bates failed to match a stubborn Andrian who hit every return perfectly in a draining match played under extreme heat on the slow Senayan clay, before retiring due to dehydration.

The Australian, ranked 828 in the world, the first-round conqueror of top seed Giorgio Galimberti of Italy on Tuesday, lost the opening set 5-7 and was trailing 0-40 and two games down when he walked off the court.

Andrian will now play fellow West Javanese Suwandi in today's quarterfinals. Suwandi, Indonesia's No. 1, gave no trace of fatigue, despite playing his second match of the day, as he steamrollered Tasuku Iwami of Japan 6-3, 6-1 for a place in the final-eight round.

A couple of hours earlier Suwandi completed his rain-delayed first-round match against the American eighth seed Rob Chess with a 6-3, 6-4 win. Suwandi was one set up but trailing 1-2 when heavy rain suspended his match Tuesday.

"I've met Suwandi lots of times and I know he's very tough. We are all square," Andrian said of his prospects in the quarterfinals.

"I feel I'm riding my luck here. Hopefully, I can maintain my form to go through to the semifinals," said Andrian who managed only to reach the second round in the first leg of the tennis circuit in Bandung, West Java last week.

Cahyono was the other Indonesian to survive yesterday's second-round matches. The Jakarta qualifier clawed his way back to beat his Italian counterpart Paolo Tabini 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) and will now take on fourth seed Martijn Bok of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

First-leg winner Bok made short work of Indonesian wildcard recipient Bonit Wiryawan 6-0, 6-2.

The other Indonesian playing in the main draw, Sulistyo Wibowo, pushed sixth seed Vadim Kutsenko of Uzbekistan to the limit before losing in three sets 2-6, 6-4, 2-6. Kutsenko will meet countryman and third seed Dmitri Tomashevich for a place in Friday's semifinals.

The other quarterfinal match today pits Italian second seed Igor Gaudi against unseeded Bernd Christiandl of Austria. Gaudi eased past Srinath Prahlad of India 7-5, 6-2, while Christiandl shocked seventh seed and last week's finalist Owen Casey of Ireland 6-4, 6-1. (amd)