China's Davis Cup team aims to crush RI
China's Davis Cup team aims to crush RI
JAKARTA (JP): A confident China is aiming to seal Indonesia's fate, naming only its two best players for a Davis Cup Asia- Oceania playoff, starting on Friday.
Two-times Asian Games gold medalist Pan Bing and his fellow veteran Xia Jiaping were the Chinese trump cards in yesterday's draw, which saw Indonesia parading all of its four-man team.
Xia will open the duel in a singles match against rookie Andrian Raturandang on Friday, only to pave the way for an early battle of top players, pitting Pan against Indonesia's number one Suwandi. Pan beat the then junior Suwandi in their only meet six years ago.
The reigning Asian doubles champions Pan and Xia will join forces on Saturday in a match which might be decisive for China. They will take on the makeshift partnership of Donny Susetyo and Sebastian da Costa, a last minute replacement for ailing Eddy Kusdaryanto.
In the reverse singles on Sunday, Andrian will play Pan and Suwandi meet Xia. The Sunday's matches will be played in a best- of-three format if a team takes an unbeatable lead.
Pan and Xia joined a team which drubbed Indonesia 4-1 in their last Davis Cup encounter in Beijing five years ago, played on their favorite hard court.
Non-playing captain He Dongpo's decision to let the two veterans play both singles and doubles left the other two players he brought here, Zhang Jiuhua and Lu Ling, unemployed.
Indonesia will meet the battle with a weakened side after Eddy pulled out of the team with hepatitis A. Eddy and Suwandi, Indonesia's first-choice doubles team, were expected to avenge their loss to the Chinese pair in the Asian Championships final last year.
Optimistic
But Indonesia's non-playing captain Wailan Walalangi kept optimistic about the matches, to be played on the Senayan clay court.
"I'm sure we can take at least a point in the first day from Suwandi. I don't expect Andrian to win but who knows, he may turn the tables," Wailan said.
"We learned a lot from our defeat to South Korea last February," he added. Indonesia crashed 1-4 in February's Davis Cup first-rounder, while China lost with the same score to host New Zealand.
Andrian, whose electrifying play received most of the cheers in Indonesia's defeat to South Korea, said he will have nothing to lose on Friday. "I am more relaxed than the time we played South Korea," he said.
Wailan also believed that his new pairing will pose a real test to the Asian champions. "Sebastian is a good all-court player. He is ready to team up with Donny," Wailan said.
Sebastian, from East Timor, joined the national Davis Cup team only five days before the playoff match.
China's captain He played down Indonesia's weakened squad, saying that it would be tough for both teams to win the matches.
"It will be very close. Whoever wins, the final score should be 3-2," He said. (05)