Sounding out the opposition

JAKARTA (JP): Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan and Tamarine Tanusagarn could be forgiven for mistaking the Senayan tennis stadium for a lion's den yesterday.

Think tennis, and the hallowed Center Court at Wimbledon and genteel crowds come to mind. But Indnesian fans turned the definition on its ear as they ranted, screamed, beat drums and shouted down a small and increasingly subdued group of Thai spectators.

Things got so out of hand that play was stopped several times in Parapan's match against Indonesian top seed Andrian Raturandang.

Paradorn was able to shrug off the hecklers to win, but Tamarine was not so lucky.

As the umpire's calls for quiet fell on resoundingly deaf ears, the world's 37 ranked player seemed bent on beating a hasty path far from the madding crowd. She lost in an excruciatingly bad performance against Indonesian Wukirasih Sawondari. (brc)