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.