Host Jakarta, C. Java secure tennis golds

Host Jakarta, C. Java secure tennis golds

JAKARTA (JP): Host Jakarta assured itself of the men's singles
gold medal in the 14th National Games (PON) tennis competition
yesterday when its two aces set up an all-Jakartan final.

Central Java also captured a gold from its women's doubles
team of Wynne Prakusya and Liza Andriyani, who beat North
Sulawesi's Irawati Moerid and Vivi Rogi in one of the two gold
medal matches yesterday.

Enfant terrible Benny Wijaya continued his demolition of
seeded players with a 6-3, 6-1 win over fourth seed Sebastian da
Costa of Lampung in their semifinal. Benny will now play his
fellow national number one Dede Suhendar, who upset second seed
Andrian Raturandang of West Java 6-3, 6-2.

The defeats of Sebastian and Andrian puts Indonesia under
pressure because both players will don the national colors in
their crucial Davis Cup match at Taipei next weekend.

Merciless Benny, whose presence in the PON was under fire
because of his refusal to play for Indonesia's Davis Cup team
last year, employed a power game on his favorite clay court to
tame Davis Cup debutant Sebastian.

Benny, who won his crown in the last PON three years ago as an
East Javanese, vowed to battle it out in the final, despite the
fact that he will be crossing rackets against the man with whom
he joined forces to win the men's team gold on Tuesday.

"A gold medal is very important for me just to show that I'm
still the best in the country," Benny said. Top seed Suwandi of
West Java was the first notable victim of the iron hands of Benny
when they met in the second round on Thursday.

Wynne and Liza, both Indonesia Fed Cup debutants, made up for
their loss in the singles matches when they teamed up to tear
down the defense of their North Sulawesi opponents. Wynne and
Liza allowed their rivals to take their only lead, 3-2, in the
first set but the rest of the match belonged to the Central
Javanese.

"We predicted the outcome. We played with full confidence and
we did it," Liza said of her PON debut win. The junior team of
Liza and Wynne upset top seeds Yayuk and Maria Veronika
Widyadarma of Yogyakarta in the first round.

Central Java can hope to take one more gold, by way of the
women's singles, provided that Wynne manages to match top seed
and world number 29 Yayuk Basuki of Yogyakarta in today's final.

In the other final match of the day, East Java won its only
tennis gold when mixed doubles team of Bonit Wiryawan and Romana
Tedjakusuma beat teammates Champy Halim and Natalia Sutrisno 6-2,
6-1.

The men's doubles final today will pit top seeds Suwandi and
Sulistyo Wibowo of West Java against their second seed opponents
Sebastian and Surya Wijaya of Lampung.

Waterskiing

In the water skiing, East Java ruled the waves of Sunter lake,
North Jakarta by winning three of four gold medals on offer
yesterday.

Nuni Nurdiyati led the East Javanese to make it a one-two-
three finish in the women's slalom. Nuni scored 14.50 to beat the
Baiq sisters of Yolanda and Herawati who collected 13.00 and
12.25 respectively.

Herawati avenged her loss in the trick event, finishing first
with 371 ahead of Nuni who managed 286. Former skiing queen
Inawati Setiawan, who represented Bali, took the bronze with 256.

East Java struck a third through men's slalom specialist Lalu
Habashi who won the contest with a score of 25. Fath Daud of Bali
came second, ahead of another East Javanese, Raharjo Priambodo.

Andi Reza Tulong of North Sulawesi was the only East Javanese
winner after scoring 349 to finish first in the men's trick.

Meanwhile, South Kalimantan and Jakarta shared the glory in
the cycling competition held at Rawamangun velodrome. A strong
Jakarta team featuring national best riders, Setiawan brothers of
Henry, Hengki Setiawan and Hery Janto, were unchallenged to win
the 4,000-meter Team Pursuit in a combined time of 4:39.19
seconds.

West Java took the silver in 4:55.26, followed by East Java
which totaled 4:47.44.

Earlier in the day, South Kalimantan's Suwandra pedaled his
way to the Wind and Out gold medal. The silver went to Ronny
Yahya of Yogyakarta, and the bronze to host rider Agus Yulianto.
Prerace favorite, Andry Sudrajat of West Java, managed only to
finish fourth.

Jakarta took its second gold of the day through Hengky, who
won the 30km Point Race. Mohammad Basri of Yogyakarta finished
second for the silver, followed by Mohammad Handi of West Java.
(amd)