Peter to take on Dickson for Astra tennis title
Peter to take on Dickson for Astra tennis title
JAKARTA (JP): Success and failure colored Indonesia's hopefuls
in the semifinals of the Indonesia Astra International Junior
Championships at the Jakarta Hilton Tennis complex yesterday.
Boys' singles home favorite Peter Handoyo, ITF junior ranked
272, cruised into today's final after defeating Briton Daniel
Belcher 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in a rain-delayed match.
But the opposite fate befell Indonesia's Liza Andriani, seeded
number two, who crashed to Russian Elena Dementieva in straight
sets 3-6, 4-6. There will be an all-Russian final in the girls'
singles as Dementieva plays Anastasia Myskina, who beat Marisue
Jacutin of the Philippines 6-4, 6-2 in the other semifinal.
Liza, one of four candidates named for the Indonesian
Federation Cup team, made amends for her upset loss by reaching
the doubles final. Teaming up with fellow Fed Cup nominee Wynne
Prakusya, Liza staved off the persistent challenge of South
Korean pair Ha Eun-young and Kim Myung-hee 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-4.
The Indonesian top seeds will now meet another South Korean
duo, Yoon Hyun-mi and Lim Sun-young, who breezed past South
Africans Lara van Rooyen and Michelle Gough 6-3, 6-2.
Peter was taking a slender 2-0 lead in the first set when the
rain fell and forced the organizers to delay the matches for more
than two hours.
When the rain stopped, Peter poured his groundstrokes to
Belcher's baseline to go three-points clear at 5-1, before
sealing the set with a drop shot.
The 16-year-old Brit settled his nerves in the second set, as
Peter played a sloppy game. A bunch of unforced errors cost the
Indonesian the set.
"Well, I messed up the second set. I don't know why, but it
always happens when I set the pace," said Peter, who is
temporarily absent from an overseas training stint in the United
States.
The deciding set showed who the boss was, with a rejuvenated
Peter slamming down his characteristic strokes from the back
court.
Peter will take on another Briton, Simon Dickson, a 6-0, 3-6,
6-0 winner over Harsh Mankad of India in the other semifinal.
"I'll battle it out tomorrow. I don't want to talk about my
chances now," Peter said.
In the girls' singles, Liza managed only to match hard-hitting
Dementieva in the first six games. The Russian broke once to take
the opening set which lasted 38 minutes.
The two baseliners played a service game in the second set
until they were tied at 4-4. Again, Liza dropped her form in the
decisive game, allowing a service break to earn Dementieva her
victory. (05)