China disqualified for fielding wrong players

JAKARTA (JP): The Chinese boys' and girls' teams were disqualified from the first Asian Schools Tennis Championships at the Senayan tennis complex on Tuesday.

Referee Akhyar Matra of Indonesia said the Chinese teams fielded the incorrect players for the first singles match in both events.

"During the technical meeting on Monday, the Chinese team listed the correct names for today's matches as stated in the regulation book. But during the match, it fielded different players," he said.

Chinese second singles Liu Yidan should have faced Chong A Mee of Malaysia in the first match. However, China fielded Fan Na, who told the umpire she was Liu.

After the first match ended in a 6-1, 6-0 victory for China, the Chinese should have then fielded first singles Fan, but instead sent Liu to the court.

The same thing occurred in the Chinese boys' match against Indonesia.

Indonesian second singles Irwan Radjab was scheduled to face China's An Da Peng, but Chinese first singles Yang Tao told the umpire he was An. The referee stopped the match with Yang leading 1-6, 6-4, 2-1 to question the Chinese player, who insisted he was An. But a Chinese official who spoke English told the referee An was actually Yang.

The referee then disqualified China from both events.

"The problem was not only a lack of communication. China has an official who can speak English and he attended the technical meeting. It is impossible the accident happened due to a lack of English ability. I don't know what was going on inside their minds, but we have disqualified them from the team events," Akhyar said.

In the girls' team semifinals, Malaysia will face Indonesia, which received a bye in the quarterfinals; and India, which beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in the previous round, will face Thailand, which defeated Brunei Darussalam 3-0 in the quarters.

In the boys' team semifinals, Indonesia will face India, which defeated Sri Lanka 3-0 in the quarterfinals. In the other semis, Malaysia, which topped Brunei 3-0 in the last round, will face Thailand, which received a bye into the semifinals. (yan)