Septi aiming for Thamrin Cup double title

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Septi Nindya Yutami is aiming for a double victory at the International Junior Thamrin Cup tennis championships after she advanced to the finals, in both the girls' singles and doubles events here on Friday.

Although she is still a step away from the championships, Septi, 16 years old, looked relieved to have reached the finals.

"I'm glad that I have gone that far given the strong field in this tournament. I will try to win in the finals," she said after her doubles match.

The third seed in the tournament outplayed fellow Indonesian Lavinia Tananta 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals early Friday.

She then paired with Maya Rosa in the doubles to stop Ayu Fani Damayanti and Nancy Metrya 6-3, 6-3 and will face Chin Yeul-ki and Shin Jun-yoon in the final on Saturday.

The South Korean pair beat Sarah Andrews and Julianne Welford of Australia 6-1, 6-2.

Septi's opponent in the singles final will be Chan Yung Jan of Chinese Taipei. Chan denied the home side an all-Indonesian date with her 6-1, 7-6 victory over Maya Rosa.

The defeat meant that Maya could not repeat her winning run against the same opponent at the Siliwangi Cup in Bandung, West Java, last week.

"She proved to be more consistent this time around, while I made too many unforced errors," Maya said. She beat Chan 3-6, 6- 2, 7-5 in Bandung.

After ending up in a crushing defeat in the opening set, Maya, seeded number two, again appeared to be an easy beat, trailing 2- 5 in the second set.

She came back to tie at 5-5, but again folded in the remaining games.

Maya looked bewildered at her opponent's tactics. "She changed her play style. Compared with the preceding stages, she seemed to be playing a different way today," she said.

The boys' field paints a grim picture for the home side which has no players left following the exit of Al Imron at the quarterfinals.

Second seed Imron surrendered to Kim Sun-yong, who is only seeded 12th, 6-3, 6-4. In the semifinals, Kim will play fellow South Korean Jun Wong-sun, a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Choi Jun, also from South Korea.

The other semifinal match will pit top seed Hsieh Wang Cheng of Chinese Taipei against fifth seed Australian Christopher Letcher.

Hsieh was unchallenged by Uzbek Dimitry Ivanov, who retired at 6-0, 4-0 due to dehydration, while Letcher dumped Korean Suk Hyung-jun 6-3, 6-3.