Benny marches on, but none notices
JAKARTA (JP): Benny Wijaya salvaged Indonesia's hopes in the US$50,000 Men's Challenger tennis championships yesterday as he blasted his way to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Mark Tjia of the U.S. to earn a berth in today's quarterfinals.
Seeded number four, Benny shrugged off a pathetic reception from home fans to display his best tennis at center court of the Kemayoran tennis complex.
A serve-and-volleyer, Benny had a little trouble in the first set but things were different in the second. Playing under the intense glare of the sun, Benny toyed with his fast-tiring opponent with his deep, powerful crosscourts.
Benny, who fell in the second round last year, will now play Croatian Igor Saric who upset fifth seeded Andrew Foster of Britain in an exhausting three-setter on Wednesday.
The week-long tournament which started on Monday has failed to draw much more than flies, leaving the five courts of the annual tournament sanctioned by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to linesmen and committee workers.
An official complained about the shoddy promotion of the event which began just a day after the end of the Asian Games in Hiroshima. Even the free admission charge failed to attract more than a handful of fans each day.
The newly built tennis complex, situated near the Jakarta Fairgrounds in North Jakarta, is staging the tournament for the first time in place of Hilton tennis courts.
Despite the tomblike silence, India's top seed Leander Paes maintained his winning ways, overpowering Toshisugu Mori of Japan 6-3, 6-1 in less than an hour. Mori found himself on the receiving end throughout the match, while conceding eight double faults which cost him four broken services.
Paes gave his sympathetic support as well as two bars of chocolate to teammate Mahesh Bhupathi who was playing third seed Laurence Tieleman of Italy. The morale booster paid off as Bhupathi came back from a first set deficit to outlast Tieleman 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
The Indian pair formed a formidable team later in the afternoon to knock out Belgian fourth seeds Gunter van Derveeren and Tom van Dehoudt 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) to advance to a semifinal clash against second seeds Oscar Ortiz of Mexico and Ari Nathan of the U.S. (amd)