Rain delays Indonesia's Davis Cup victory

Rain delays Indonesia's Davis Cup victory

JAKARTA (JP): Rain should be blamed for delaying Indonesia's
Davis Cup victory celebration.

With a resounding 2-0 lead over Chinese Taipei, Indonesia
could have wrapped up the Davis Cup Asia Oceania play-off matches
with an unassailable lead, when a heavy downpour halted the
winning run of Asian Games doubles bronze medalists Donny Susetyo
and Teddy Tanjung.

They were 6-2, 6-2 up, but trailed 3-4 in the third against
Taiwanese Lien Yu-Hui and Chen Chih-Jung when the heavy downpour
washed out the match at the Senayan tennis stadium.

Indonesia grabbed the early lead on Friday when Suwandi, the
country's number two player downed Taiwanese number three Chen
Wei-ju 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. Bonit Wiryawan made another singles
win yesterday when he completed his rain-interrupted match
against Chen Chih-jung with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 in a hard-fought
battle.

The Bonit-Chen match was stopped on Friday due to darkness,
with the Indonesian leading 6-3, 1-1.

Slow-playing Bonit had to labor before stopping the Chinese
Taipei number two.

Coach Wailan Walalangi told reporters yesterday Bonit was too
tense and could not play naturally. "He has been absent from
Davis Cup too long. Moreover, playing before the home public
brings the special burden of not wanting to let the fans down..

That made him quite nervous and led him to repeatedly direct
the ball to the middle which benefited Chih-jung in the second
set," Wailan said.

Bonit said: "I did feel tense and this prompted me to hit
short returns. In the fourth set, I felt tired already. To
prevent exhaustion, I decided to respond only to the shots which
I thought would be impossible for him to return."

Outclassed

The Indonesian doubles team, who apparently outclassed their
error-prone Taiwanese opponents, finished the first and the
second sets with an encouraging 6-2, 6-2 quickly.

In the third set, Yu-hui and Chih-jung managed to lead 4-1,
before Donny and Teddy added two points and made it 4-3.

Wailan said that having two sets up, Donny and Teddy thought
they could end the game with ease.

The coach seemed sure it would not be hard for his charges to
nail a victory. "Despite the 3-4 deficit, they will taking the
advantage of holding the serve," Wailan said.

He said the referee would not favor a two-hour break today.
This means that after resuming the delayed doubles match, Chen
will have to immediately take on Suwandi.

"He will surely be tired and this will distract his
concentration," Wailan said.

Wailan added that the Chinese Taipei team was "a hopeless
team".

"They don't take this playoff seriously. They arrived only
shortly before the playoff. If they knew they're not very well
versed in playing on clay courts, they should have come earlier
and trained here longer and more intensively," Wailan said.

Chinese Taipei's coach Hwang Moon-choul was unable to stay for
the press conference. He only said briefly that his players were
not in their top form because of the stinging heat.

National number one pair Donny and Teddy have been training
and playing together for two years and were the 1992, 1993 and
1994 finalists of the Indonesian Satellite tennis championships.
(arf)