RI beats Taipei to win Fed Cup Asia Oceania
RI beats Taipei to win Fed Cup Asia Oceania
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia, unbeaten since the opening round of
the Fed Cup Asia Oceania regional qualifying women's tennis
tournament, beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 yesterday and will now play
in July for promotion to world group two.
The singles clash between the finalists' highly-rated number
one players, Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia and Wang Shi-Ting of
Chinese Taipei, was one of the highlights of the tournament.
Yayuk, ranked 24 in the world, and Wang Shi-Ting, ranked 39,
are both winners of six professional singles titles and this week
showed the strength of women's tennis in Asia.
AFP reported from Wellington, the 26-year-old Yayuk had a 43-
27 record in Fed Cup singles before this week's tie, which placed
her 15th on the all-time list of singles winners in the
international women's competition.
After 42 ties, she has joined Chris Evert and Arantxa Sanchez-
Vicario in sixth place among the most experienced players in Fed
Cup history. Her victims in the World Group qualifying matches
last year included the Australian Open champion Martina Hingis.
Yayuk led the final 1-0 at the start of play and the classy
Indonesian clinched the tie for her team after she recovered from
the loss of the first set to win, saving the second set in a
tiebreak.
Wang Shi-Ting took the first set 6-3 and had the opportunity
to win the match in the second set but Yayuk showed her
experience and her professionalism to force the tiebreak which
she won 7-0.
She continued to play with precision and power in windy
conditions and won the deciding set 6-3.
Earlier, Indonesia's young hopeful Wynne Prakusya defeated
Taipei's second singles Julie Huang 6-2, 6-4.
Wynne, ranked 743 in the world, opened the first set with a
shaky start. She was able to take control and forced Huang to
make unforced errors to finish the set 6-2.
In the second set, Wynne lost concentration when leading 4-2.
But the 16-year-old was able to overcome the pressure and
conclude the set 6-4.
Wynne has never lost her five matches during the qualifying
round, which started on March 11.
Nearly 100 Indonesian supporters, including the Indonesia
Ambassador to New Zealand T. Sumolang, threw their weight behind
Wynne who celebrated Indonesia's 1-0 victory although the second
singles match had not started.
In the doubles competition, Wynne and Eny Sulistyowati beat
Hsu Hsueh-Li/Julie Huang 6-3, 6-2 to take the tie 3-0.
The Indonesian team will return home Tuesday and will stay in
Bali for another two days for a break after the exhausting
matches.
China finished third in group one after beating Hong Kong 3-0.
New Zealand sprinted to a 3-0 win over fourth seeds Thailand to
clinch fifth place.
India finished in seventh place after Kazakhstan withdrew.
India and Kazakhstan have been relegated to group two for next
year's regional playoffs, their places in group one being taken
by the Philippines and Uzbekistan.
Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan defaulted their matches
yesterday because of travel problems. (yan)