Indonesia wins three titles in Asian School meet

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)