Indonesia outplays HK in Junior Davis Cup

Musthofid The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Top seed Indonesia chalked its first win with a 3-0 rout of Hong Kong in the Asia-Oceania Qualifying matches of the Junior Davis Cup competition here on Wednesday.

Anthony Mukti Tan opened Indonesia's campaign with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Xiao Peng Lai at the Senayan Tennis Court before Sunu Wahyu Trijati decided the team's victory with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Ronald Chow.

The host team sealed the third tie after Sunu and Sandy Purnomo beat Xiao and Martin Sayer 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles.

Team's coach Yustejo Tarik applauded his players' win and cautioned his side that a tough game had yet to come until in the quarterfinals stage.

"The lads have been performing well so far. They just don't want to squander chance of losing points in their opening matches," Yustejo said.

"However, the real test for the players will be on Thursday whether we can overcome either India or Uzbekistan to ensure we can carry on with our Davis Cup campaign to take a berth in the World Group," he said.

With Indonesia looking set to be able to run past New Zealand in their final Group One matches on Thursday, Indonesia will be drawn against Group Four runner-up, which has second seed India, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.

India also registered its first win after defeated Pakistan 3- 0. It was Pakistan's second defeat following another 0-3 whitewash by Uzbekistan.

Thailand and Sri Lanka in Group Two, which is joined by Japan and Oman, have scored two wins. So have South Korea and Chinese Taipei in Group Three over the Philippines and Iran.

The competition will pick four best teams to the World Group in Essen, Germany, this September.

Meanwhile in the Women's Circuit, which is being played at the other sides of the court, Sandy Gumulya, a member of the Indonesian Fed Cup team, failed to hang on in her second-round game against Maki Arai of Japan to lose out 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday.

The upset came one day after she joined a gathering to celebrate the Indonesian women's team success in Tokyo last week to reach the Fed Cup playoffs of the World Group.

After taking the first set, Sandy began to encounter trouble in the remaining games when Arai shifted her tactics by giving the Indonesian a high-volleyed ball to the back, which found Sandy flopping regularly in the return.

"Her shots are very difficult to handle. When she had that kind of shot she would follow with an equally-dangerous slash," Sandy told The Jakarta Post after the match.

The other top seeds were also through with third seed Liza Andriani of Indonesia being extended to a three-set battle by Kim So-jung of South Korea.

Liza lost the first set 4-6 before bouncing back in the remaining sets with 6-2 and 6-0 wins.

Top seed Chia Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei thumped Dragana Ognenovska of Macedonia 6-2, 6-2. Second seed Khoo Chin Bee of Malaysia and fourth seed Tiffany Welford of Australia booked her third-round tickets with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Georgette Wright of the United States and Lyoo Suh Hee-sun of South Korea 6-4, 6-3 respectively.