Bulgaria smashes Indonesia's dream at Federation Cup
Bulgaria smashes Indonesia's dream at Federation Cup
FRANKFURT, Germany (Agencies): Bulgaria smashed Indonesia's dreams of making its only second quarterfinals appearance at the Federation Cup women's tennis team championship here, taking a 2- 0 winning lead for a place in the last eight.
The major upset began when Romana Tedjakusuma, national second best who capped her second appearance at the championship, lost her grip and was kept the defensive side against her fast moving 25-year-old Bulgarian opponent. Romana, who is ranked beyond 100 in the world, fought all the way but was easily swept 6-2, 6-1 by the world number 37.
Maleeva's youngest sister Magdalena underlined Bulgaria's supremacy over Indonesia as she disposed of Yayuk Basuki in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. Yayuk, who had beaten her opponent twice in their last two Wimbledon meetings, should have blamed the slow surface of Waldstadion's clay court for her poor performance. The world number 36 lost to Wang Shi-ting in Indonesia's 2-1 win over Chinese Taipei in their first round battle on Monday.
The victory earned sixth seed Bulgaria a ticket for next year's World Group elite. Maleeva's sisters will now face a potentially explosive quarter-final showdown with third-seed France today.
Indonesia, powered by Yayuk and Suzanna Anggarkusuma, clinched its first ever quarterfinals berth in 1991 in Nottingham, England only to fall to Spain. The national women's squad has never moved farther than the second round since then. It also crashed to the eventual winner Spain in their second round meet here last year.
Australia - last year's finalist - also failed to qualify for the 1995 World Group when it crashed to Austria.
The Australians, seven times champion and 10 times finalist after playing in the women's team event every year since it was launched in 1963, needed to reach the last eight here to qualify for the elite group when the competition changes its format.
Outpowered
But neither Rachel McQuillan nor Kristine Radford could take a set, let alone score the necessary singles victory which would have enabled the Australians to fall back on their doubles prowess to try to clinch the tie.
On the first day of fierce sunshine after dull and rainy weather since the competition started on Monday, the 68th-ranked McQuillan went down 4-6, 1-6 against Petra Ritter, who is three places higher on the computer, in just 76 minutes.
McQuillan did manage to fight back from 0-4 down to 4-4 in the first set but then won only one more game.
Her start had been an undoubted nightmare, but Radford's was even worse.
Through wrap-around sunglasses, the 24-year-old from New South Wales watched in dismay as the scoreboard tilted humiliatingly in favor of the 35th-ranked Judith Wiesner 0-6, 3-6.
Wiesner, who has represented Austria in 31 ties since 1983, now boasts a remarkable singles record in the event of 24 wins and just two defeats.
Austria, which joins Japan, Germany, South Africa and France in today's 1995 World Group draw, now faces second seeds the United States for a place in the semi-finals.
The United States, the second seed, had an easier than expected passage into the quarter-finals when Canada lost its No. 2 singles player Helen Kelesi through injury midway through the opening clash against Mary Joe Fernandez.
The American was leading 6-1, 4-1 when Kelesi pulled up with a strained thigh muscle.
The powerful 6ft 2in (1.88m) Lindsay Davenport, the world's sixth ranked player and a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon, proved too good for the diminutive former Hong Kong Federation Cup player Patricia Hy.
Hy, 28-years-old, ranked 58th and born in Cambodia, went down 2-6, 4-6.