Indonesia keeps Davis Cup hopes alive in Davis Cup play-off

JAKARTA (Agencies): The solid partnership of Bonit Wiryawan and Sulistyo Wibowo stormed to a convincing straight-sets win yesterday to keep Indonesian hopes alive in its Davis Cup Asia Oceania third-round play-off against Chinese Taipei.

The visiting Indonesians opted to pick Bonit in place of Sebastian da Costa to team up with Sulistyo in yesterday's crucial match after going 2-0 down in the first day on Friday.

Taiwanese Olympic doubles team of Chen Chih Jun and Lien Yun Hai disappointed their home crowd with the 2-6, 4-6, 3-6 loss, but non-playing captain Hwang Moon Choul vowed afterward that his side would take the remaining two singles matches today.

Taiwan number one Tsai Chia Yen will play his Indonesian counterpart Andrian Raturandang, before Chen takes on Bonit in the last match.

The last-minute substitution paid off as Bonit, once Indonesia's best doubles specialist, quickly adapted to the power play initiated by teammate Sulistyo.

The Indonesians swept five successive games to race to a commanding 5-1 lead in the opening set, which saw Davis Cup debutant Sulistyo blast four aces and serve well for two love games.

Chen and Lien came back strongly in the second set, breaking serve to pull level at 4-4. But Bonit showed his dominance at the net with numerous winning volleys as big serving Sulistyo steered the match from the baseline to take the set.

The Indonesians faced no serious opposition from the frustrated Taiwanese in the third set.

"I had predicted earlier that Bonit and Sulistyo would play, but I never thought that they would be that great," Hwang said in the press conference.

"Lien was not in his best form after suffering a strained muscle in his waist after the Olympic Games," Hwang added. The Taiwanese duo have not played in any tournaments since the Olympics last July.

Favorite France, overconfident and unable to dictate play despite partisan home support and a faster indoor surface especially chosen to upset Italy's clay-court specialists, left itself a mountain to climb in its Davis Cup semifinal showdown in Nantes on Friday.

It lost both of the opening singles -- Cedric Pioline going down 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 to Andrea Gaudenzi and Arnaud Boetsch then crashing 5-7, 6-1, 3-6, 6-7 (5-7) to Renzo Furlan.

And 30-year-old Stefan Edberg's final fling in the competition before his end-of-season retirement could well be extended. His 7-6 (7-2), 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win over Daniel Vacek gave Sweden a 2-0 lead in the other semifinal against the Czech Republic in Prague. Earlier an impressive Thomas Enqvist beat former French Open finalist Petr Korda 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (11-9).

Gaudenzi, 23, who trains with Austrian Thomas Muster, demolished Pioline with his steady baseline aggression to chalk up his fourth victory over the French number-one in five career encounters.

And Boetsch, who was constantly left stranded at the net by Furlan's deadly accurate cross-court passing shots, threw away a 5-1 lead in the fourth set tie-break.

France had gone into the tie oozing confidence after posting 5-0 victories over Denmark and Germany in previous rounds.

"The Italians deserve their lead," admitted French captain Yannick Noah after the defeats.

Pioline's first serves slumped from a 45 percent success rate in the first set to a lowly 36 percent in the last.

Noah went on: "As for Arnaud -- he got off to a bad start and, although he managed to come back, and despite the fact that the final result was close, he clearly choked at the end."

"Now we must concentrate all our efforts on tomorrow's doubles."

Italy, which has won the event only once (in 1976) has not reached the final since 1980. But it could well rectify that as early as Saturday if Gaudenzi and Diego Nargiso upset veteran left-hander Guy Forget and Guillaume Raoux.

Former world number-one Stefan Edberg, who made his Davis Cup debut twelve years ago when he helped Sweden defeat the United States in the final, admitted: "The key for me today was to win the first set. That was very important."

"I felt like I was playing some good tennis and I didn't have any problems from my heel injury. Obviously it would be a wonderful final curtain for me if we reach the final and then play for the trophy back home in Switzerland."

Like the French, the Czechs, who notched up a shock win over defending champions the United States in the quarter-finals in April, can afford no more slips when play resumes with the Saturday doubles.

The Swedes, five-times champions, will field Jonas Bjorkman and Nicklas Kulti against the home pair Bohdan Ulihrach and Jiri Novak.

In the World Group qualifying round clashes, Croatia, despite playing at home in Split, ended the day 2-0 down to the Australians. The visitors' hero was Jason Stoltenberg who beat big-serving Goran Ivanisevic in a five-set thriller.

Earlier Mark Philippoussis dropped only seven games in the opening singles against Sasa Hirszon.

Austria squandered its chance of taking a 2-0 first-day lead in its Davis Cup World Group qualifying group clash against Brazil in Sao Paulo and ended up sharing honors at 1-1.

Thomas Muster powered his way to a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory over home player Fernando Meligeni but then his compatriot Markus Hipfl let slip a two sets to love lead against Gustavo Kuerten, lost two tie-breaks in which he didn't win a point, and finally surrendered 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (0-7), 6-7 (0-7), 1-6.

Rain held up Belgium and Spain while injury pinned back the Netherlands.

In Bucharest, Belgium made a bright start when Johan Van Herck defeated Adrian Voinea 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 while in Tarragona, Alberto Costa gave Spain a winning start against Denmark by overwhelming Fredrik Fetterlein 6-0, 6-0, 6-2. Rain then postponed the second singles until Saturday.

Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, leading 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4, 1-4, had to pull out of his match against New Zealander Alistair Hunt because of a knee injury.

The result left the two sides level-pegging. Jan Siemerink earlier defeated Brett Steven in an exciting five-set marathon.