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)