Febi, Yusmawan reach Futures quarterfinals

JAKARTA (JP): Febi Widhiyanto and Yusmawan Fahmi remain the only national men's singles players in the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Futures F6 at the Danamon tennis complex in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

Febi, 19, reached the quarterfinals after beating Thomas Shimada of Japan, who retired due to heat exhaustion in the third set. Down 2-6 in the first set, Febi managed to survive the second by winning 6-3. In the deciding set, Shimada decided not to continue because of his condition.

"I made many unforced errors in the first set because Shimada put pressure on me. In the second set, I managed to perform more consistently and my passing got better," Febi said.

Febi will face top seeded Satoshi Iwabuchi of Japan, who defeated Kamil Blaha of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3.

"I have never met him in a tournament. Let's wait and see tomorrow. I just hope to play better than last week's tournament to reach the semifinals," said the national team member.

Yusmawan, also a member of the national team, had to work hard to upset eighth seeded Juraj Hasko of Slovakia 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). He will challenge second seeded Jan Hermansson of Sweden, who beat Indonesian Edy Kusdaryanto 6-2, 6-3.

In another quarterfinals, third seeded Hideki Kaneko of Japan, who barely broke a sweat to beat Vaclac Duda of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1, will face Frantisek Babej of Slovakia, who won 6-4, 6-3 over Minh Le of the United States.

Fourth seeded Danai Udomchoke of Thailand beat Japanese Hiroyasu Sato 6-3, 6-2 to meet Ryuso Tsujino, who is also from Japan. Tsujino had to spend all his energy to beat compatriot Akira Matsushita, who was sixth seeded here, 7-6 (7-2), 1-6, 7-5.

In the men's doubles, only the national veteran partnerships of Bonit Wiryawan and Sulistyo Wibowo reached the semifinals. Fourth seededs Bonit and Sulistyo beat Roman Kukal and Josef Nesticky of the Czech Republic 6-7 (6-8), 6-0, 6-2.

The Indonesians will challenge second seededs Ashley Fisher of Australia and Minh Le of the United States, who won 6-3, 7-6 (7- 3) over Bjorn Jacob of Germany and Niko Karagiannis of Greece.

Top seededs Japanese Shimada and South African Myles Wakefield Frantisek Babej and Juraj Hasko of Slovakia 6-3, 6-0. They will meet Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan and Sato of Japan, who beat Andrian Raturandang and Suwandi of Indonesia 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).

In the Indonesia Women's Circuit 3 at the same place, only Irawati Moerid Iskandar and Mimma Chernovita survived the second round.

Irawati beat junior Frederika Girsang 6-4, 6-1 to meet seventh seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi of India, who won 7-5, 6-1 over Veronika Civrtnickova of the Czech Republic.

Mimma reached the quarterfinals thanks to opponent Diane Asensio of Switzerland, who retired when the Indonesian was leading 6-4, 3-0. (yan)