Ayu wins first ITF junior tennis title

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Second seeded Ayu Fani Damayanti of Indonesia defeated top seed Liu Wan Ting of China 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday to win the 2003 ITF Indonesia Junior tennis championships at the Bung Karno Tennis Courts in Senayan, Central Jakarta.

Ayu was at the top of her game and raced ahead to 1 5-1 lead in the first set. However, Liu fought back to win the next two sets before the 15-year-old Indonesian slammed the door to take the set 6-3.

The second set again saw Ayu jump out into the lead, racing ahead to a 3-1 advantage on the back of some fine play. However, after hitting some unforced errors, the Chinese player still had some life left at 4-2 down in the set.

After splitting the next two games to make it 5-3, Ayu was serving for the match when she hit two double faults, a net and a wide return. But she fought back to win the set 6-3 and take the ITF title.

"I'm very happy to win my first ITF title," said Ayu after the game, adding that she was looking forward to the upcoming junior tournament in Surabaya.

The Jakarta tournament will be followed by the Widjojo Soejono International Junior Tennis Championships in Surabaya from Nov. 17 to Nov. 23.

In the boys' singles, fourth seed Roman Kelecic of Croatia won the ITF title by upsetting top seed Yi Chu Huan of Chinese Taipei 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in a two-hour marathon final on Sunday.

Yi dominated the first set, taking an early 3-1 lead and eventually closing out the set at 6-3.

Kelecic put up a much tougher fight in the second set, and the two played some compelling tennis. The two players traded games in the tightly contested set.

At 5-5, Kelecic bore down and took the next two games to win the second set 7-5.

The third set saw a dominating Kelecic crush a dispirited Yi, winning the set 6-2 and taking the title.