Febi, Hendri finally enter training program
JAKARTA (JP): Two members of the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games tennis squad, Febi Widhiyanto and Hendri Susilo Pramono, have agreed to join their teammates staying in the PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) dormitory.
Tennis training director Martina Widjaja told a news conference on Friday that both Febi and Hendri relented in their stance against staying in the dormitory after their refusal caused controversy.
"They feel comfortable playing with teammates here after weeks of practicing. Finally, they decided to join their friends and moved into the dormitory on Thursday night," she said.
Febi and Hendri earlier turned down the offer of the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) to stay in the PT PGN dormitory, saying they preferred to stay at the home of their coach, Deddy Prasetyo.
Martina said she had earlier sent a letter to Pelti chairman, Tanri Abeng, asking him to solve the problem. She said at the time that she would not necessarily wait for Tanri's response to the matter.
Febi and Hendri said they had changed their minds about staying in the dormitory without pressure from anybody.
"This is for the sake of teamwork. This is my own decision and I was not under pressure," said Hendri.
Pelti picked Febi, Hendri, Suwandi and Yusmawan Fahmi for the men's team and Wynne Prakusya, Romana Tedjakusuma, Liza Andriyani and Wukirasih Sawondari for the women's. They are being coached by Tintus Sulistyo and Suharyadi.
Indonesia has targeted three golds in the women's team, men's double and mixed doubles.
Tintus, who coached the men's team, hailed Febi's and Hendri's decision, saying it would boost their teammates' motivation for winning in the biennial event. He also said the whole team would take part in the West Java Governor Cup tennis tournament in Bandung next week.
Separately, SEA Games training director, Imron Z.S., threw his weight behind coach Bambang Gatot Subroto's decision to return the Malaysian squash practice partner sooner than scheduled.
Bambang had complained that Aaron Soyza, who ranks eighth in Malaysia, did not meet Indonesia's players' standards.
"I assume our team's skill must be better than the Malaysian's. Pak Bambang made the right decision to pick a better player," he said.
Bambang said he would hold a series of matches between Indonesia's Johnny Supardi and Nuryanto and Soyza.
"If Aaron cannot reach five points, what's the use of keeping him here?" he said.
Soyza said he had difficulty playing on the Senayan squash courts because the court surface was different from the ones in Malaysia.
"I used to play on faster surface courts. In Jakarta, the court surface makes the ball move slower," he said.
Speaking on Indonesian players' chances in the Games, Soyza said local players had a good chance of grabbing silver medals.
"They have good chances. At the least they can win second place. They are strong enough to beat the Filipinos. They also have equal chances against the Singaporean team. If they can beat me, they can beat Singapore," he said.
"But I don't know how they can adapt to the fast surface courts in Brunei."
Soyza said Malaysia would field five top players, Kenneth Low, Ong Beng-hee, Mohammad Azlan, Yap Kok-four and Ricky Lee.
"Azlan is the youngest, but he played very good. He could be a world-class player someday," said the 22-year-old player. (ivy)