Indonesia leads Taipei 2-0 in Davis Cup tie

Indonesia leads Taipei 2-0 in Davis Cup tie

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia leads Chinese Taipei 2-0 after the
first day of a three-day Davis Cup tie for the Group II zone Asia
Oceania final round at the Kemayoran Tennis Center on Friday.

First singles Suwandi fulfilled his mission to take the first
match after having a comfortable victory over Taipei second
singles Cheng Wei-Jen winning 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.

But Indonesia's second singles Hendri Susilo Pramono, who was
making his first Davis Cup debut as a singles player, stole the
show with his hard-hitting serves to defeat coach and first
singles Tsai Chia-Yen 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.

"I had predicted that we would win 2-0 and it all went well
and without a hitch. The players won in straight sets,"
Indonesia's non-playing captain Tintus Arianto Wibowo told a
post-match conference.

Hendri, who is better known as a doubles specialist and was
picked to replace teammate Febi Widhiyanto, said that he was
tense in the first and second sets.

"I was very tense, especially in the first set. After I
managed to win the tie break, I started to play in a more relaxed
fashion. It could have boomeranged on me if I hadn't loosened
up," said the 21-year-old player.

"It was a little bit difficult to adapt to the challenge as
the first singles in an important tournament like the Davis Cup.
In the second set, I made too many unforced errors and almost
spoiled my performance. I was rushing myself to win quickly."

Hendri was leading 5-3 in the second set before he allowed
Tsai to take over the lead 6-5. Luckily, Tsai made unforced
errors at critical moments and let Hendri force a tie-break. In
the tie-break, Hendri managed to control himself to play better
and win it 7-3.

"I told him to work on his serves as he lost his accuracy
during the points. Tsai was very weak in his return backhand and
we wanted to push him," Tintus said.

Tsai said he never expected to come up against a good
performance from Hendri.

"I have never met Hendri before and I only knew that Suwandi
is a good player. We had earlier expected to earn one point in
the first day from the second match," said Tsai, who has been
competing in the Davis Cup for seven years.

"Hendri had very good serves with a combination of slice and
kick serves and I couldn't predict them. Besides I had problems
with my return service."

Cheng said his team should have come here earlier to adapt to
the hot and humid weather.

"We just arrived on Thursday evening. Usually we have cool and
chilly weather. But this morning it was very hot and humid and we
just couldn't get used to it."

Speaking on the absence of Liem Bing Chao, a former Indonesian
player using the name Benny Wijaya who has taken out Taiwanese
citizenship, Indonesia's coach Deddy Prasetyo said that even with
the presence of Liem, Indonesia would still be in the lead.

"Benny's performances have been declining since 1997. He was
in the top 200 in the world but now his ranking is only in the
1200s."

Saturday's match will feature doubles Bonit Wiryawan and
Sulistyo Wibowo who will challenge Cheng Wei-Jen and Chen Wei-Ju.

Tsai said he would not change his doubles formation and would
fight harder to open his country's chances for the reverse
singles matches.

"But I'm optimistic that Bonit and Sulistyo will be able to
overcome their doubles. Our doubles have won many tournaments and
I hope they can perform well tomorrow," Deddy said.

Should Indonesia win, the country will be promoted to the
zone's Group I and meet Uzbekistan next year. (yan)