Observers doubt RI chances in Fed Cup tie in Puerto Rico

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The national women's Fed Cup squad, without injured number one Angelique Widjaja, will have to prove wrong those who say they are unlikely to win their upcoming World Group II Playoff against Puerto Rico.

Tennis analyst Benny Malili and coach Deddy Prasetyo said on Wednesday they believed the women would probably lose the tie because they were lower ranked than the Puerto Ricans.

"Two Puerto Rican players have ranking in the 60s and 160s, while our players rankings range from the 300s to 500s," Benny said.

"That reflects that the Puerto Rico team has better technique and experience than ours."

Puerto Rico chose a hardcourt venue in the small coastal town of Salinas for the tie on July 9-10.

Although Wynne Prakusya has a career-high WTA ranking of 74 from August 2002, she is not at her top form.

Puerto Rico has selected world number 68 Kristina Brandi, Vilmarie Castellvi (168), Jessica Roland (978) and Bianca Gorbea, who is not listed on the WTA computer.

Apart from Wynne, currently ranked 388th, Indonesia has teenager Ayu Fani Damayanti (477) and world no. 501 Romana Tedjakusuma, the same lineup which lost to Germany 1-4 on clay in Essen in April.

The countries have never met before in the 42-year history of the women's team competition.

The winner will secure a berth in the 2006 World Group II.

Benny predicted it would be a tough tie, because Wynne and Romana, who was ranked in the low 80s in the early 1990s, play well on hardcourts.

"Still, we're likely to lose the tie. We might only be able to win the doubles match because Wynne and Romana are a good doubles pair."

Deddy said nonplaying captain Suzanna Anggarkusuma must be willing to take risks in such a tight matchup, including giving Ayu, who he coaches, the opportunity to play and gain valuable match experience.

"Ayu Fani, 16, should be played as the second singles player to give her a chance to improve her mentality in a team event," Deddy said.

"Otherwise, in the future we will not have a good stock of players."

However, former world top 20 player Yayuk Basuki told The Jakarta Post earlier this year that Indonesia was gifted a great opportunity to advance, considering that it could have been drawn to face stronger teams from China, the Slovak Republic, Japan or Thailand.