Indonesia advances to Rosenblum Cup final
Imanuddin, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian team participating in the Rosenblum Cup in Montreal, Canada, lost the first three sessions in its semifinal match against the Burgay team from Poland, before dominating the fourth session to win the semifinals and advancing to the final match of the international bridge tournament, a report said on Wednesday.
The Indonesian team comprising couples -- Henky Lasut and Eddy Manoppo, Denny Sacul and Franky Karwur, and Robert Tobing and Taufik G. Asbi -- won the match with 126 against 111.
The Polish couples of top world players -- Cezary Balicki and Adam Zmudzinsky, Michael Kwiecien and Jacek Pszezola, and Leoardo Burgay and Mariani -- won the first three sessions with slight margins 30-29, 40-37 and 38-37.
But the Indonesian couples controlled and dominated the fourth session, securing 23 points against 3.
The team's advent into the final match is the best achievement an Indonesian team has ever made in the four-yearly tournament. In the 1998 Rosenblum Cup held in Lille, France, Indonesia only managed to enter the last-32 round, while the country's previous best achievement was in the 1994 Rosenblum Cup in Albuquerque, USA, when it entered the last-16 round.
It is only the second final match an Indonesian team has reached after the first time in the 1996 World Team Bridge Olympiad on Rhodes Island, Greece.
Indonesia's opponent in the final match will be the Lavazza team of Italy. The Italian team, consisting of players Maria Lavazza, Ferraro, Lauria, Versace, Bocchi and Duboin, was the champion of the 2000 World Team Bridge Olympiad in the Netherlands and recently won the 2002 European Bridge Championship.
The Italian team defeated the Swedish team in the semifinals with 50-6, 13-42, 21-35 and 39-19.
Bridge observer, Bert Toar Polii, however, expressed confidence that the Indonesian team still had a chance of winning the match against Italy as the latter would rest on its first two couples -- Bocchi and Duboin and Lauria and Versace.
"Besides, the Indonesian team has a psychological benefit as it defeated the Italian team in the final match of the Third IOC Grand Prix in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2000 and during its last meet with the Italian team in the Bermuda Bowl in France last year, Indonesia won 61 against 33," he told The Jakarta Post.