RI-S. Korea in Asia-Oceania Junior Davis Cup final

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With a ticket to the World Group of the Junior Davis Cup already assured, the Indonesian tennis team will face South Korea in the final of the Asia-Oceania qualifying matches with the hope that they will one of the seeded squads in Essen, Germany, in September.

Top seed Indonesia reached the final after beating Chinese Taipei 2-1 in the semifinals at the Senayan Tennis Court here on Saturday.

Indonesia battled to an unassailable 2-0 lead with Anthony Mukti Tan and Sunu Wahyu Trijati triumphing over their respective opponents.

Anthony beat Lien Chia-Chu 6-4, 6-4 and Sunu continued his perfect run at the tournament with a 6-4, 6-1 thrashing of Chang Huai-En. It was his fourth win in four matches.

Chinese Taipei took a consolation point through Huang Chin-Yu and Lien Chua-Chu in the dead rubber which saw the Indonesian pairing of Sandy Purnomo and Anthony lose by default.

The Indonesian pair were trailing 2-3 when Anthony suffered a bloody nose and was forced to retire.

South Korea came from behind to upset second seed India, also 2-1. With four slots allocated from the Asia-Oceania zone, the four semifinalists will all be heading to Germany for the 16- nation World Group championship.

However, Indonesia and South Korea, which will begin their final matches at 10 a.m., may nurture more hopes of taking another honor of not only being the champion but the reward of being taken as one of the seeded nations in Germany.

"We will be seeded in Germany if we come out champion here. And the advantage is that we may be drawn (in the first round) against a lesser opponent. It may be even be one of the Asia- Oceania participants," team coach Yustejo Tarik told The Jakarta Post after watching Sunu's game.

Sunu said he was happy that Indonesia managed to enter the World Group after they flopped last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in which Indonesia was eliminated by Korea in the quarterfinals.

"I just feel happy after last year's failure. I will try to maintain our performance to win the final," said Sunu, who seemed eager to avenge last year's defeat.

With around four months available before the team's departure to Germany, Sunu said that he would set out to Europe to take part in the U-16 championships in Italy and France.

Meanwhile in the ITF Women's Circuit, Chuang Chia-Jung lived up to her top seeded billing to register a double victory in the singles and doubles.

The Chinese Taipei player took the singles title by beating second seed Khoo Chin Been of Malaysia 6-4, 7-5. She partnered with Hwang I-Hsun to overwhelm Sandy Gumulya and Septi Mende of Indonesia 6-4, 6-3.