Indonesia wins three titles in Asian School meet

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia grabbed three more titles in the girls' singles, girls' doubles and boys' doubles in the first Asian Schools Tennis Championships at the Senayan tennis complex on Sunday.

Frederika Girsang of Indonesia, who has an International Tennis Federation junior ranking of 183, had to fight hard to defeat Fan Na of China 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the girls' singles. Earlier, Fan upset top-seed Chattida Thimjapo of Thailand and third-seed Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia.

In the boys' singles, the gold medal went to Sunil Kumar of India. Kumar tried his best to eliminate Chinese Yang Tao 6-4, 7- 5.

Indonesia's boys' doubles of Naharuddin and Prima Simpatiaji, top seed in the championships, contributed another gold medal after beating Pacharapol Khamsaman and Sornsakol Supakit of Thailand 6-2, 7-5.

"We were optimistic we could win the gold medals from the very beginning because we're the top seeds and we really want to try our best for the country. But in the second set, Prima and I started to lose concentration because we really wanted the match to end," Naharuddin said after the match.

In the all-Indonesian girls' doubles final, top seeds Angelique Widjaja and Novianti Warsono beat compatriots Frederika Girsang and Mudarwati 6-3, 6-1.

In the team events, Indonesian girls won the gold medal while the boys earned the silver medal. Thailand won the boys' team event.

Team manager R. Soerjadi said after the match that he was really proud of the results, which were double the estimate of only two golds.

"This is a delightful moment for us because our athletes can still show the world their great performance in such a difficult situation," said Soerjadi, who is also the principal of the Ragunan Sports School in South Jakarta.

"Their development in the future will be the Indonesian Tennis Association's (Pelti) responsibility. My school will continue to groom new talents," he added.

Pelti's official in charge of junior development, Deddy Prasetyo, said the results of four golds, out of the six golds on offer, were extremely satisfying.

"Pelti should find sponsors for those players to enable them to continue their international careers in the future. Pelti must also start to prepare players to compete in junior championships," he said.

A Ministry of Education and Culture's Directorate General of Extracurricular Activities and Sports official, Sri Sudono Sumarto, has urged sports organizations to pay attention to talented students.

"Sports organizations can use such a championship to give more experience to students," he said.

Sudono said all participants expressed satisfaction with the championships despite a student rally at the time of the championships last week in which seven people were killed. (yan)