Host tennis players qualify for Future c'ships main draw

JAKARTA (JP): Three national tennis players reached the main draw of the Indonesia Futures F5 tournament at the Kemayoran tennis complex in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

Tjahjono barely broke a sweat to eliminate Hiroshi Fukaumi of Japan 6-0, 6-0. Tjahjono will face compatriot Yusmawan Fahmi, who received a wild card for the first day of the main draw today.

Ferdy Fauzi also managed to reach the main draw due to Ruben de Kleijn of the Netherlands retiring when Ferdy was leading 7-5, 4-3. Ferdy will face Febi Widhiyanto, a member of the national Davis Cup and the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games team, who also received a wild card.

Surya Wijaya also qualified for the main draw after defeating teammate Peter Susanto 6-1, 6-0. Surya has a slim chance to reach the second round as he will challenge second seeded Danai Udomchoke of Thailand.

The top seeded of the tournament, Jan Hermansson of Sweden, will meet Minh Le of the United States today. The winner will challenge the winner of the match between qualifier Robert Krause of South Africa and Niko Karagiannis of Greece.

Third seeded Frantisek Babej of Slovakia will face Phoemphon Atabut of Thailand. The winner will face either Sebastian da Costa or Edy Kusdaryanto, who will fight in the all-Indonesian match.

Fourth seeded Akira Matsushita of Japan is to take on German Bjorn Jacob. The winner will also face either Tjahjono or Yusmawan.

Suwandi, a member of the national team, will face Josef Nesticky of the Czech Republic. If Suwandi manages to win his first match, he will likely meet Udomchoke in the second round.

Compatriot Hendri Susilo Pramono will meet Yasutomo Nakase of Japan in the first round. If Hendri wins, he is likely to face Babej.

In the doubles, Thomas Shimada of Japan and Myles Wakefield of South Africa are the top seeded here followed by Hideki Kaneko and Satoshi Iwabuchi of Japan.

Febi and Hendri will have to meet compatriots Yusmawan and Ariawan Poerboadinoto in the first round. If Febi and Hendri survive the match, they are likely to challenge third seeded Minh Le of the United States and Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan. (yan)