Indonesia too strong for Chinese Taipei
Indonesia too strong for Chinese Taipei
JAKARTA (JP): Donny Susetyo and Teddy Tanjung displayed their best doubles mastery to secure Indonesia a 3-0 unassailable lead over Chinese Taipei yesterday in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group One play-off.
In the first reverse singles, Suwandi confirmed Indonesia's supremacy over the Taiwanese with a 6-4, 7-5 win, to put his team 4-0 ahead.
Cool-headed Suwandi maintained his characteristic baseline game, overcoming Chinese Taipei's ace Chen Chih-jung in the reverse singles match, which was marked by numerous broken services.
Chen stepped on to the Senayan tennis stadium's clay court to challenge Suwandi's tenacity just an hour after his defeat in the doubles.
Bonit Wiryawan, however, failed to go on from an initial 5-0 drubbing and was beaten 1-6, 6-3, 3-6 by Chen Wei-ju.
Heavy rain led to the suspension of Saturday's decisive rubber when the Indonesians were two sets up and trailing 3-4 in the third set. The best national doubles players conceded a set as they resumed their interrupted match against Chen Chih-jung and Lien Yu-hui before claiming a 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win.
The victory means Indonesia remains a contender for the 1996 World Group qualifying round.
The visiting team finally managed a consolation win when Chen Wei-ju outsmarted a lack-luster Bonit in under two hours. Bonit was subjected to repeated jeers from his home fans for allowing too many floating returns.
"Yet, we are quite satisfied with the result. We have successfully completed one of our toughest tasks this year," an elated Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, chairman of the Indonesian Tennis Association, said.
"Coming up is the Federation Cup. We hope that both our men's and women's teams maintain their peak performance since we are preparing for the Southeast Asian Games," Sarwono added.
Yayuk Basuki and company are slated for a World Group qualifying round battle against a Gabriela Sabatini-led Argentinean team at the end of this month, also at the Senayan tennis stadium.
Mistakes
According to the national team coach, Wailan Walalangi, Donny and Teddy should have made short work of their Taiwanese opponents but committed too many unnecessary mistakes.
Donny, who admitted to losing his grip because of the overnight suspension of his match, dropped his serve to give the third set to the Taiwanese. But the Indonesian young guns quickly regrouped to break Lien Yu-hui's serve and fought gallantly to save their service games.
"I regained my confidence as soon as we broke their serve at the beginning of the final set. Everything ran as planned after that," said Donny. "Teddy gave me a tremendous back-up throughout the match," he said of his teammate of two years.
This is the second Davis Cup appearance for both Donny and Teddy. The first was in South Korea last February, when Indonesia was drubbed 5-0.
In yesterday's match, Suwandi appeared to be taking it easy in his match against a hopeless Taiwanese. The Indonesian number two, who employed his blistering backhand drives, handed Chen Chih-jung three broken serves in the opening set. Suwandi repeatedly netted his strokes, which cost him two service- breaking games.
The Indonesian South East Asian Games gold medalist, Suwandi, double-faulted when serving for a win, leaving Chen forcing a stretched set.
"Suwandi was not in top form, after recently spending a month in the U.S. because of a study commitment," coach and non-playing captain Wailan said. (amd)