Bok strolls into second straight RI Satellite men's tennis final

JAKARTA (JP): Martijn Bok of the Netherlands moved within one win of a second title in the Indonesia Satellite men's tennis circuit when he eased past the second seed, Italy's Igor Gauri, in straight sets yesterday for a place in today's final.

The Dutch fourth seed, the first leg winner in Bandung, West Java last week, proved a 67-place difference in world rankings did not count for anything. Playing nearly flawless tennis, Bok stormed to a 6-3, 6-1 win in a match that lasted only 53 minutes. He has only dropped 10 games from four matches going into the final.

In today's final, Bok expects a much tougher clash against third seed Dmitri Tomashevich of Uzbekistan, who bounced back from four games to love down to roll over home favorite Andrian Raturandang 6-4, 6-0 in the other semifinal.

"I might be lucky and win easily today. It gave me a confidence boost heading for the final," world-ranked 424 Bok said after the match which he obviously controlled throughout.

Gauri, who crashed out in the quarterfinals last week, had problems with his first serve. He managed to win his first two service games of the first set, but never came close to winning after Bok broke him for a 3-2 lead. The Italian world number 357 capped his shaky start with a double fault that cost him the set.

Bok stepped up the pressure in the second set, bursting into an unstoppable run after the first two games were shared. He broke Gauri to go 3-1 up and turned the remainder of the set into one-way traffic.

Tomashevich also scrambled to regain ground against Andrian who played before only a handful of enthusiastic fans. Andrian, the only Indonesian contender left in the tournament, delighted his supporters with smooth serve-and-volley play to go four games clear in the opening set.

But a cool Tomashevich changed tactics to douse Andrian's fire with angled long balls which pinned the Indonesian on his own baseline. The Uzbek clay specialist underlined his dominance as he blanked Andrian in the last two games of the first set.

A fast-tiring Andrian was totally dispirited in the second set. He wasted a chance to break the duck when Tomashevich, serving for the match, went 0-30 down due to troubles with his serve.

"It was a disappointing match. I just could not stand his double-handed backhand which forced me to stay on the back foot," Andrian said. "He (Tomashevich) should win the final if he keeps up this sort of play."

In the doubles event, American Rob Chess and New Zealander James Greenhalgh upset Italian top seeds Gaudi and Giorgio Galimberti 6-1, 7-6 (12-10). The mixed nationality pair will only know their opponents this morning after referee Peter Duncan suspended yesterday's other semifinal match due to bad light.

First leg winners Bok and Owen Casey won the first set 6-2 but were trailing Australia's Andrew Bates and Blake Brinklow 3-5 when the match was stopped. (amd)