Indonesia knocked out of Davis Cup

Indonesia knocked out of Davis Cup

SEOUL (Agencies): A solid partnership of Kim Chi-wan and Chang
Eui-jong gave South Korea an unassailable 3-0 lead over visiting
Indonesia in their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group One matches
yesterday.

The South Korean number one doubles fought off a persistent
challenge by Indonesia's Asian Games bronze medalists Donny
Susetyo and Teddy Tanjung 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 in a match which
lasted almost three hours.

Today's two singles matches look to have academic interest
only, with South Korean number one Yoon Yong-il playing Suwandi
and Lee Hyung-taik taking on Indonesia's doubles ace Bonit
Wiryawan. Both matches will be played in a best-of-three format.

Coach Wailan Walalangi can only hope to break the jinx of
suffering a 5-0 thrashing, in stark contrast to the fact that
Indonesia once won all four home matches against South Korea.

A nervy Teddy, who made his Davis Cup appearance, left Donny
struggling to maintain their rhythm against the in-form home
favorites.

Going two sets down, the Indonesians slowed their pace in the
third set and drilled their cross-court strokes which had the
South Koreans running.

The strategy, however, failed to match the speed and power
game set up by the host team in the fourth set. They broke
Donny's service in the second game, taking the momentum to wrap
up the match.

"It's a disappointing outcome as we tried our best. They
completely overpowered us," said Donny.

He backed Wailan's decision to let Bonit play the singles
match. "It is the best composition. If I played singles, then I
would have to play doubles too," Donny said.

In another Asia-Oceania zone match in Calcutta, Leander Paes
and Gaurav Natekar scored an easy win in the doubles to give
India a decisive 3-0 lead over Hong Kong.

Paes and Natekar, the Asian Games doubles winners last
October, ran over the inexperienced duo of Sven Koehler and
Thorsten Poelzel 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 in an hour and 18 minutes on the
grass courts of the South Club here.

The win, which followed easy romps for India in Friday's
opening singles, reduced today's reverse singles to a meaningless
contest in this Asia-Oceania group one first round tie.

India, relegated to the zonal competition for the first time
in four years after being semifinalist in 1993, will play Japan
or the Philippines in March for a place in the playoffs for the
16-nation world group. Japan led the Phillipines 2-1 yesterday.

World Group

In the World Group matches in Durban, South Africa, Australia
took an early lead against South Africa when Patrick Rafter beat
Marcus Ondruska in four sets 6-3, 6-4, 3-6 yesterday. The matches
were delayed Friday due to overnight rain.

On Friday, Davis Cup holder Sweden was heading for a shock
exit from the first round of the 1995 campaign, after trailing
Denmark 2-0 on Friday's opening day.

Jonas Bjorkman, a late replacement for Magnus Larsson was
beaten by Kenneth Carlsen, and mighty Stefan Edberg was toppled
by rank outsider Frederik Fetterlein.

In other World Group ties, Russia, last year's losing
finalist, took a 2-0 lead over Belgium, Michael Stich and Boris
Becker put Germany 2-0 up against Croatia, Austria was all square
with Spain and the United States was tied with France.

But the shock of the day came from Copenhagen, the drama
starting mid-morning with the withdrawal of Larsson complaining
of stomach pains.

Bjorkman, lacking confidence on his debut, was outgunned by
Carlsen's superior service as the Dane came from a set down to
win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Carlsen is nicknamed "The Swede Killer" by the Danish press,
following his victories over Edberg at Wimbledon and Larsson at
Copenhagen last year.

Buoyed up by his teammate's victory, and the roars of support
from the crowd from the second set onwards, Fetterlein came back
from a 6-1 first set thrashing to beat Edberg 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3.