Indonesia out of contention for singles title

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Suwandi and Bonit Wiryawan lost their second-round matches in the US$6,250 Indonesia Men's Satellite Tennis Circuit event at the Hilton Tennis Courts here on Thursday, ending any chance of Indonesia winning the single's title.

Rain then interrupted the day's program, causing the postponement of the doubles matches.

Suwandi never got into the flow of his match, being drubbed by fifth seed Dominiq Coene of Belgium 6-3, 6-1. Bonit put up a serious challenge in the opening set of his match against Liu Tai Wie of Chinese Taipei but offered little resistance in the second set, losing 7-6 (5), 6-1.

Indonesia's top player, Febi Widhiyanto, was upset by third seed Chen Ti of Chinese Taipei 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday.

Coene will face top seed Alan Mackin of Great Britain in the quarterfinals, while Liu will play Suk Hyn-joon of South Korea. Second seed David Sherwood of Great Britain will face Trystan Meniane of France.

The only quarterfinal match already completed featured Chen Ti and Michael Ourarov of Great Britain on Thursday. Ourarov advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 victory.

While having been denied title in the singles, the hosts are still harboring hopes in the doubles, the matches of which were disrupted by the rain on Thursday.

The matches were suspended at 4:30 p.m. because of rain and will resume on Friday.

"The rain was falling persistently and we had to put off the matches until Friday," August Ferry Raturandang of the organizing committee said.

Third-seeded men's doubles pair Febi and Hendri Susilo of Indonesia were leading 7-6 (5), 5-3 against Belgium pairs Coene and Pin Van Mele when the rain began to fall.

Febi and Hendri had the chance to put away the match on Thursday, leading 5-1 and holding the serve when the Belgians fought back with a break.

Ketut Nesa Arta of Indonesia and Gafur Ishmatov of Uzbekistan lost the first set of their match against second seeds Philippe Frayssinoux of France and Vince Mellino of Australia 6-4.

The second set was all knotted up at 3-3 when rain forced the players off the court.

"We lost the first set but we still have a chance in the second set," Ketut said.

Suwandi and Sunu Wahyu Trijati of Indonesia were holding a 1-0 lead in the first set of their match against Liu and Si Yen-Ming of Malaysia when the match was called for the day.

The finals are expected to take place on Sunday.