'Keep Fed Cup winning team for World Group'

JAKARTA (JP): National tennis coach Suzanna Anggarkusuma called on the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) to keep the victorious Fed Cup team for the World Group qualifying round in July.

"We have yet to evaluate their performance in last week's Group I play-off as the players are in Vietnam to compete in the WTA circuit and I have yet to hear from manager Martina Widjaja on the evaluation meeting," Suzanna told reporters on Thursday.

"But in my opinion it is better to keep the winning team together for our qualifying match in July."

Indonesia's team comprised old hands Yayuk Basuki and Romana Tedjakusuma and second liners Wynne Prakusya and Wukirasih Sawondari.

They managed to defeat tough rival Chinese Taipei in the final of the Group I play-off in Kaohsiung, Taipei.

Following the teams's success, Pelti was urged to include promising junior Angelique Wijaya to further strengthen the team.

Angie, Angelique's nickname, grabbed the singles and doubles titles at the Japan Open junior group one on Sunday.

"Angie's achievements were considerable but she still has lots of things to do considering her young age. She must also improve her WTA world ranking first," said Suzanna.

"She is welcome in the Fed Cup team especially as we need more players. If we have enough players, we don't have to worry about there being two or more events being staged at the same time."

The Fed Cup team has no scheduling problems regarding the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games from Sept. 8 to Sept. 17 as the World Cup qualifying round will take place on July 21 and July 22.

But the Indonesian Davis Cup team will have a very tight schedule for its second play-off match against China from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23, which is only a couple of days after the Games.

Suzanna, however, said players would not be allowed to complain about the hectic schedule as in modern professional tennis there are tournaments every week.

"Tennis players are accustomed to tight schedules between tournaments. They travel between events with only a short time for recuperation," she said.

"They must always be prepared as we no longer use the periodic method in which we set a peak time and a recovery period."

"Wynne and Romana, for instance, went directly to Vietnam after their Fed Cup match. Angie also headed for Vietnam after clinching the double title in Japan." (nvn)