RI teams on way to W. Youth Cup finals

RI teams on way to W. Youth Cup finals

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian boys' and girls' tennis teams
improved their chances of advancing to the World Youth Cup tennis
team championship finals with well-deserved victories on the
second day of their Asia Oceania qualifying round matches at
Senayan yesterday.

A solid partnership of Enny Sulistyowati and Liza Andriyani
secured the Indonesian girls' team a 2-1 victory over New
Zealand, thanks to their 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 sandwiching of Flora
Kovacs and Rewa Hudson in their decisive doubles match which was
interrupted by rain for almost two hours.

The Indonesians, who routed Hong Kong 3-0 on Tuesday, marched
into the quarterfinals as the group leader. New Zealand will join
Indonesia if it beats Hong Kong today.

Earlier, in the boys' event, Peter Handoyo led his Indonesian
trio to a convincing 3-0 win over Singapore in much the same way
as their 3-0 demolition of India on Tuesday. The Indonesian boys
look set to maintain their unbeaten run in their group as they
play Hong Kong today. Hong Kong suffered a 0-3 drubbing by India
yesterday.

The Asia-Oceania qualifying round, which gets underway this
weekend, fields 14 boys' and 13 girls' teams which play round-
robin matches. Only four teams from each division will go to the
finals in Essen, Germany next September.

The Indonesian pairing of Enny and Liza made light work of
their New Zealander opponents in the first set. Kovacs and
Hudson, however, produced a brilliant comeback in the second set,
forcing the defensive Indonesians to hit too many wide returns.
Kovacs was the only one to save a game in the second set which
saw seven broken serves.

"We were trying to play safely when we took the opening set,
but we could not settle our nerves," said Liza, who overpowered
Kovacs 6-1, 6-2 in the first singles.

Hudson helped her team level the tie at 1-1 when she upset
Wynne Prakusya 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. (amd)