Sipaeya down, Van Niekerk wins

JAKARTA (JP): Top seed boy's singles player Sunil Kumar Sipaeya of India surprisingly fell to eighth seed Markus Egger of Austria 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the 2001 Gas Negara International Junior Championships here on Thursday.

In the semifinals on Friday, Egger will face Robert Blair of South Africa, who overpowered Australian Clinton Letcher 6-2, 6- 3. The other semifinals will pit Indian Vinod Kumar Sewa, who had a walk-over win over Dias Doskarayev, against Jonathan Chu of the United States.

Chu outclassed Gunter Austerhuber of Austria 6-0, 7-5.

In the girl's event, top seed Maretha Van Niekerk breezed through the semifinals after crushing Indonesia's sole survivor Suci Bungaran 6-3, 6-1 at Kemayoran Tennis Center here.

Van Niekerk will face fifth seed Egyptian Amani Khalifa, who had no difficulties in eliminating South Korean qualifier Chun Ji-ni 6-1, 6-0.

Another Egyptian, Yomna Farid, will face Amber Liu of the United States. Second seed Farid beat Susanne Aigner of Austria 6-3, 6-4 while unseeded Liu had an easy 6-0, 6-2 win over South Korean Kim So-jung. (ivy)