Indonesia fails in Fed Cup

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesia's junior Fed Cup tennis team failed to march through to the world level after losing 1-2 to South Korea in the Asia-Pacific group matches at the Bung Karno Stadium tennis courts here on Friday.

With the win, Korea, along with China, India and Chinese Taipei, are heading to the International Fed Cup in France in October.

After being tied at 1-1, Indonesia rested its hopes on the doubles. Sandy Gumulya and Septi Nindya Yutami started well with an opening 6-4 win, but Jae-Hee Joung and So-Jung Kim fought back to take the remaining sets 6-4, 7-6.

Earlier, Indonesia looked to easily go through when Septi gave the team a 1-0 lead with a 6-3, 6-0 drubbing of Joung Jae-hee in less than half an hour.

The home team was one game away from world qualification when Sandy, after splitting the first two sets, was leading Kim So- jung 5-4 in the third set with the Indonesian holding serve.

But the Indonesian teenager somehow let her opponent off the canvas with an erratic display of shots the rest of the game. She was finally beaten 6-4, 3-6, 5-7.

Sandy was so disappointed that she broke down in tears after the match. Accompanied by teammates Sandy and Maya Rosa Stefanie, Sandy dejectedly entered the medical room where she was consoled by coach Alfred Raturandang.

In other matches, second seed China upset top seed Australia 2-1, while India and Chinese Taipei outplayed Thailand and Malaysia respectively by the same score of 3-0.