Parents protest over Pelti's posture
JAKARTA (JP): The parents of a number of junior tennis players continued their protest over the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti)'s decision on team members for the Asia Oceania zone qualifying round of the world junior tennis competition in Colombo and the East Asia U-14 tournament in Kuala Lumpur.
"We'll keep protesting against Pelti even though our children won't be competing in the tournament. We have seen how top players with good records can be easily ejected from the national team line-up on a whim," said Rismawati, mother of junior player Morgan Al-Kausar.
"We want to help develop national tennis and also to see our children get on the right track. If they are taught not to respect sportsmanship, what will they become in the future?"
The dispute started when Pelti held an U-14 tournament to select 16 boys and girls in February for the Colombo event, which is scheduled for April 30 to May 6.
Felix Fernandus withdrew from the boys' second round selection in March. Meanwhile, Sunu Wahyu Trijati, Anthony Muki Tan and Sandy Purnomo and girl players Ayu Fani Damayanti, Golda Rubina and Lavina Tananta all qualified.
Rumors said Pelti had urged Felix to quit but he nevertheless joined the team for the Kuala Lumpur tournament, which is scheduled for April 8 to April 21.
Pelti later asked Anthony, who skipped the first round selection, to enter the second round. Anthony's father, Muki Tan, has agreed to help finance the team's trip to Colombo.
Three out of the eight boys -- Morgan, Elbert Sie and Budi Setiawan H. -- pulled out of the selection to protest Anthony's inclusion in the team.
Parents of the three players later condemned the Pelti decision which they labeled "unfair". They met Pelti's deputy official in charge of tournaments, Enggal Karjono, who requested that they be magnanimous in accepting the decision.
Pelti chairman Tanri Abeng was quoted on the association's official website www.inatenis.com as saying that the decision was final.
"Anthony has world ITF junior ranking so he received our attention. With Felix's resignation in the first round, we needed a substitute for the second-round selection. The team also needed his ranking to decide the seeding," he said after a meeting on Monday.
The boy's team for Kuala Lumpur consists of Sunu, Felix, Seno Hartono and Fajar Kharisma. Pelti is sending six girls to the tournament; Denise Harijanto, Nancy Metrya, Cicilia Isadora, Ayu, Golda and Lavina. The last three girl players are in the national top three.
Meanwhile, Golda's father Iskandar said that he and Lavinia's family had been asked to finance their daughters' transportation and accommodation in Kuala Lumpur.
He said that three top players, Ayu, Golda and Lavinia were earlier registered to join the Kuala Lumpur tournament but Pelti's head of development, promotion and international relations Martina Widjaja changed the line-up, citing equal opportunity for juniors as being the main reason. (ivy)