Indonesia romps to 5-0 victory over New Zealand

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia completed a comprehensive 5-0 victory over New Zealand with two more wins in the rubber singles on Sunday in their Asia-Oceania Zone Group 1 Davis Cup play-off at the Bung Karno tennis stadium in Jakarta.

Although Indonesia was already assured of keeping its place in the group after racing to an unbeatable 3-0 lead on Friday and Saturday, the hosts did not experience any letdown in their play.

Indonesia's No. 1 Febi Widhiyanto outplayed New Zealand junior William Ward 6-4, 6-3, while Prima Simpatiadji beat Matthew Prentice 6-4, 7-6 (7/2).

On Friday, Febi defeated Prentice while Prima stunned New Zealand's No. 1 Mark Nielsen. The hosts then built an insurmountable 3-0 lead on Saturday with a win in the doubles, courtesy of Suwandi and Bonit Wiryawan.

New Zealand team manager Patrick O'Rourke congratulated the hosts on their play.

"We tried desperately to prevent it (the 5-0 result) from happening, but Indonesia played very well," O'Rourke said.

New Zealand's nonplaying captain, Bruce Derlin, said the team would head home to evaluate what they needed to work on.

This was Indonesia's first Davis Cup win over New Zealand, after three previous defeats. New Zealand beat Indonesia 5-0 in New Zealand in 1977, 5-0 in Jakarta in 1997 and 3-2 back home in 2002.

"Indonesia has become a lot stronger than it used to be," Derlin said.

Derlin said he chose to play Ward on Sunday instead of Nielsen in order to give the 18-year-old some experience in the Davis Cup. And Ward proved to be a major challenge to Febi on the court.

He matched the Indonesian until the ninth game of the first set, when Febi broke Ward following a double fault.

The young New Zealander did not back down in the second set, breaking Febi early for a 2-1 lead. Febi broke back and raced on to take the set, losing only one more game.

Prima also had a difficult match on Sunday against Prentice, being pushed to a tie-breaker in the second set before stopping his opponent to chalk up his second win.

"Matthew performed quite well. It made it difficult for me to break him," Prima said after the match.

It was an impressive performance by the 22-year-old Indonesian, after losing both of his matches in Indonesia's 3-2 defeat to Japan in their first round Davis Cup play-off in February.

While Indonesia can now rest until next season, New Zealand must face Pakistan, which lost 5-0 to Chinese Taipei, in a third- round play-off in September to decide which will be relegated to Group 2.