Indonesia gets a bye in tennis

Indonesia gets a bye in tennis

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Defending champion Thailand and the
1999 runner-up Indonesia were among six teams which received a
first-round bye in the men's tennis competition at the 21st
Southeast Asian Games here.

There was no objection to the draw of the tournament, which
was held at the Jalan Duta Tennis Complex, venue for the
competition, after the manager's meeting on Saturday.

Combodia, Vietnam, Singapore and Laos joined Thailand and
Indonesia into the second round without hitting the ball.

A total of 10 countries will take part in the men's tennis
team event. Indonesia, banking on its 1999 Games veterans, is
seeded first, ahead of Thailand, which is without its top
players.

In the first round tomorrow, host Malaysia will play the
Philippines while Brunei will meet Myanmar.

The winner of the Malaysia/Philippines match will face Vietnam
while the winner of the Brunei/Myanmar match will meet Singapore
in the second round.

If the draw goes as expected, top-seeded Indonesia and second-
seeded Thailand should reach the semifinals without much
difficulty as they face the less-fancied Cambodia and Laos
respectively in the second round.

In the semifinals, Indonesia is tipped to meet either fourth-
seeded Vietnam or the winner of the Malaysia/Philippines match
while Thailand is slated to face either third-seeded Singapore or
the winner of the Brunei/ Myanmar game.

Indonesia and Thailand are widely tipped to play a rematch of
their final two years ago in Brunei Darussalam. Thailand, then
the top seed, lived up to its billing and whitewashed Indonesia
3-0 to snatch the gold.