Sanchez upsets Eltingh on way to quarterfinals

Sanchez upsets Eltingh on way to quarterfinals

JAKARTA (JP): Emilio Sanchez of Spain produced the biggest
upset of the day at the US$328,000 Indosiar Men's Open tennis
championships yesterday when he sent fourth seed Jacco Eltingh of
the Netherlands packing.

Old crack Sanchez, 31, who carved out brilliant
accomplishments in his professional career as a doubles player,
shrugged off 15 aces sunk by Eltingh to win 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 and
strolled into the quarterfinals.

"I'm happy because I won," said Sanchez in a press conference
after the match which lasted one hour and 26 minutes. "Jacco is a
difficult player but I think I played very smart."

Sanchez will now play Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco in today's
quarterfinals. El Aynaoui maintained his striking form yesterday
by beating Russian Davis Cup player Andrei Chesnokov 7-6 (8-6),
6-2.

Eltingh, the fourth seed to fall in the week-long tournament,
complained over a crucial let call by the umpire in the last
scene of the close battle.

With Sanchez gaining a match point at 6-5, the Dutch world
number 43 received a let call for his fault serve. Both players
were on play when the umpire ordered Eltingh to repeat his first
serve.

Eltingh, who lodged a protest for the call, failed to keep his
cool. He fired his forehand wide to give Sanchez the match.

But Eltingh refused to blame the call for his defeat. "My best
play is at the net but I stayed on the baseline," he said.

Sanchez, the eldest of tennis professionals' most celebrated
family, used his stubbornness to douse the Dutchman's fire, which
he used to tackle when they met in doubles matches.

Emilio's younger brother, Javier, was bundled out in the
opening round on Monday.

The two world's most renowned doubles players ran round the
court in an exciting trade of strokes, rallying to save their
games until they entered the tiebreak.

Sanchez, who received most of the cheers from the crowd at the
3,000-seated Senayan tennis court, produced a brave fightback to
level after trailing 1-4 in the tiebreak.

Eltingh regained the lead, but it proved short-lived as he
drove his forehand wide. Sanchez took the full advantage of his
serve with an ace, before sealing the tiebreak with a deep
forehand.

Earlier on the day, defending champion and Eltingh's doubles
partner Paul Haarhuis, did not even break sweat on his way to the
quarterfinals after Chris Wilkinson of Britain forfeited the
match due to dehydration.

Haarhuis won an easy first-set 6-1 and took a commanding 3-0
lead when Wilkinson opted to give up. The Briton was the second
player to fall victim to dehydration after Oleg Ogorodov of
Uzbekistan who lost to American Michael Joyce on Wednesday.

Holder Haarhuis will meet Guillaume Raoux of France who made a
short work of Herbert Wiltschnig of Austria 6-3, 6-1 yesterday.

The other two quarterfinal matches today will pit Mikael
Tillstrom of Sweden against Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands,
and Joyce against Austrian second seed Gilbert Schaller.

Organizers of the annual tournament announced that entry to
all matches this year was free of charge. (05)