Last Indonesian pair tumbles at Men's Challenger
Last Indonesian pair tumbles at Men's Challenger
JAKARTA (JP): The combination of Benny Wijaya and Suwandi
became the last home pair to fall at the US$50,000 Indonesia
Men's Challenger tennis championships when they lost 6-7 (5-7),
2-6 to British third seeds Andrew Foster and Danny Sapsforo
yesterday.
Playing before a handful of diehard fans at center court of
the Kemayoran tennis complex, the blend of Indonesia's top
singles players made a superb comeback from 1-5 down to level the
score in the first set, but were totally outgunned by the British
pair in the second.
The towering Foster blasted his ballistic services while the
shorter Sapsforo stood firm in front of the net for a number of
brilliant cross cuts which left both Suwandi and Benny dazed.
Indonesia's brave challenge in the first set turned lackluster
in the next set when Suwandi dropped his service twice in a row
to allow a 2-5 deficit. Suwandi, who lost to Indian top seeded
Leander Paes in the first round of the singles competition,
double faulted as the Indonesian duo suffered their second broken
service.
Holding service for a win, the British team trailed 0-30 as
Benny drilled his nose-dive smashes. A wide return from Suwandi
sealed the match for the Britons who will now play American David
Hall and Italian Pietro Pennisi in tomorrow's semifinals.
In the singles event, South Korean old-pro Kim Bong-soo geared
up his giant killing run by ousting seventh seeded Jan Kroslak of
Slovakia 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Kim is now expected to take on Asian
Games bronze medalist Paes who plays his second round match
against Toshisugu Mori of Japan today.
Benny, the only Indonesian singles player left in the 32-field
tournament, will meet American lucky loser Mark Tjia in today's
quarters.
Yayuk
Meanwhile in Brighton, England, Indonesian women's singles
number one Yayuk Basuki, fresh from her Asian Games campaign,
strolled into the second round of the $400,000 tourney after
impressively outplaying Kristine Radford of Australia 6-3, 6-1 on
Tuesday.
The first day of the week-long women's championships was
highlighted by the fall of three seeded players.
Third-seed Mary Joe Fernandez faded after taking the first set
to lose to fellow-American Patty Fendick 6-4, 3-6, 2-6.
Belgium's Sabine Apelmans, the sixth seed woke up too late
against Larisa Neiland of Latvia and was beaten 0-6, 6-7 (4-7).
And eighth-seeded Chanda Rubin was comprehensively beaten 1-6, 4-
6 in an all-American confrontation with Tami Whitlinger-Jones.
Wimbledon champion and top-seed Conchita Martinez of Spain
survived a first set tie-break before romping home against
Germany's Wiltrud Probst 7-6 (8-6), 6-0 and Julie Halard of
France, the seventh seed, defeated home player Claire Wood 6-3,
6-2.
In Lyon, France, former world number one Jim Courier came
safely through his dangerous first-round showdown with
experienced Frenchman Guy Forget at the $600,000 ATP tournament
on Tuesday -- but he had to survive a difficult first-set which
went to tie-break.
Courier, winner of four Grand Slam singles titles and hoping
for late season successes to make up for what has been a
frustrating season, scored a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 victory against the
left-handed Forget, who has made a spectacular comeback to the
game after a year-long absence because of a knee injury.
Forget, 29 and the world's fourth-ranked player in 1991, was
given a tremendous reception by the home crowd, but Courier's
punishing baseline tennis and nagging accuracy eventually proved
too much.
Australian Jason Stoltenberg, seeded sixth, went out to
Forget's 55th-ranked compatriot Olivier Delaitre in three sets,
and eighth-seeded MaliVai Washington of the United States, recent
winner at Ostrava, had to work hard to shake off stubborn Jeremy
Bates of Britain 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4.