Bonit and Sulistyo cruise to Futures doubles semis

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's veteran pair of Bonit Wiryawan and Sulistyo Wibowo made their way to the semifinals of the US$15,000 Indonesia Futures-2 at the Kemayoran Tennis Center in Central Jakarta on Friday.

Bonit and Sulistyo, the only host players to have survived in the event, had to fight hard before upsetting second seeds Rik De Voest and Haydn Wakefield of South Africa 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 in the second round.

The Indonesians will challenge the South Korean duo of Chung Hee-seok and Chung Hee-sung, who sweated it out to defeat Bjorn Jacob of Germany and Marc Merry of the Netherlands 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).

Bonit and Sulistyo won the Futures-1 last week in an All- Indonesian final against Davis Cup team member Edy Kusdaryanto and Hendri Susilo Pramono.

In another match, the third seeded pair of Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Roman Kukal of Slovakia beat qualifiers Rico Jacober of Switzerland and Kantki Thomas of the United States 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3.

Cermak and Kukal will face top seeds Zbynek Mlynarik of Austria and Vladimir Platenik of Slovakia, who beat the South Korean pair of Han Min-kyu and Lee Sang-hoon 6-4, 7-5.

In the singles event, Cermak also cruised to the semifinals after a 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) win over De Voest in the quarterfinals on Friday. Cermak will play South Korean Kwon Oh-hee, who had no difficulties in defeating Mlynarik 6-4, 6-4.

Another semifinal match will pit South Korean Yoon Yong-ill and Finnish Jarkko Nieminen. Yoon beat Jacob 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 while Nieminen outclassed Ashley Ford of Australia 6-2, 6-4.

Separately, the spokesman of the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti), Benny Mailili, denounced the comment made by colleague Pelti treasurer Qoyum A. Tjandranegara, who said on Wednesday that the Futures tournaments only served as an event for international players instead of host players.

"He should realize that it takes about two years to groom local tennis players into world-class players. If he said that international tournaments staged here are only to serve foreign players, he should argue the case."

"If the tennis association in England holds the same thought as him and refuses to stage Wimbledon because no Englishman can win it, then there would not be a Grand Slam event in this country. (Based on this analogy) I think Qoyum is too narrow- minded," he said emotionally.

Qoyum also suggested that Pelti should eliminate one Futures event to a Satellite to boost local players' fighting spirit. (ivy)