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.