RI pair clinches satellite title

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's best men's tennis doubles Bonit Wiryawan/Sulistyo Wibowo have won the first of the 1997 Satelindo Satellite tennis circuit series, beating Australians Jed Gould/Jordan Kerr 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2.

Sunday's final at Senayan tennis complex saw the duo win in two hours 28 minutes in front of a crowd that included Indonesian Tennis Association chairman Sarwono Kusumaatmadja.

Bonit/Sulistyo received a US$393.75 first prize.

Australian Jurek Stasiak won the men's singles title to bag $203 after defeating Prahlad Srinath of India 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Antara reported that the Indonesian doubles team had no trouble winning the first set 6-3 after breaking the Australians' service twice.

Tie break

But in the second set, Gould/Kerr fought from behind to equal at 4-4. Bonit/Sulistyo took over again to go to 5-4 before fighting it out to 5-5 and then 6-6. The Indonesians went down 4- 7 in the tie break.

Bonit complained: "The court was very bad, maybe because it needed water."

After the court was watered, Bonit/Sulistyo gave their opponents no quarter and concluded the last match 6-2.

Sarwono told Antara he had asked Gelora Senayan's management board to fix the court. Nothing has happened yet.

"They promised to fix it next month," he said.

Sulityo said it was his second title this year. He and Bonit won a title in Spain early August.

In 1996, Sulistyo and Bonit won the satellite tournaments in Bandung, Surabaya and Semarang. (yan)