Suhendar lone local left in Future tourney

JAKARTA (JP): Nonseeded Suhendar Dinata is the lone surviving Indonesian in the men's singles quarterfinals of the Men's Indonesian Fertilizer Future 4 here after four of his compatriots lost in the third round on Thursday.

World ranked 894 Suhendar, a wild card entry who is nicknamed Dede, did not have any difficulty in beating seventh seed and world ranked 735 Ashley Ford of Australia 6-4, 6-4 at the Kemayoran Tennis Center.

Dede will face second seed Hideki Kaneko of Japan in Friday's quarterfinals. Kaneko, world ranked 300, defeated Indonesian qualifier Febi Widhiyanto 6-4, 6-2.

Febi is a member of the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games squad with Hendri Susilo Pramono, Suwandi and Yusmawan Fahmi. Yusmawan was forced to default in the Future 3 tournament last week because of his commitment to compete in the Universiade in Mallorca, Spain, this week.

Hendri was thrashed 1-6, 2-6 by Ryusu Tsujino of Japan. On Friday, Tsujino will meet South African Ric De Voest, who beat top seed Paradorn Srichaphan in the second round.

Indonesia's young hope Surya Wijaya, who upset senior Suwandi on Wednesday, lost to lucky loser Glen Bertram of Australia 7-5, 6-0. Bertram will challenge fourth seed Danai Udomchoke of Thailand.

Future 3 champion Vadim Kutsenko of Uzbekistan, world ranked 378, reached the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Indonesia's Sebastian Da Costa. Kutsenko will face the 1998 Asian Games champion Yoon Yong-il of South Korea.

Tennis commentator Benny Mailili said that Dede would be forced to fight hard against Kaneko to earn a place in the semifinals.

"Dede was lucky to reach the quarterfinals because he had a very easy draw. Ford could not develop his playing strategy and was totally controlled by Dede," he said.

"Dede only has a slight chance to win a place in the semifinals as Kaneko has accurate strokes and good passing shots. Dede should not try to rally with Kaneko from the baseline if he wants to win."

Benny said that Febi and Hendri were outclassed by the Japanese players. "Febi could keep up with him during the first set but he was shut out of the second set. Kaneko is much more experienced."

In the men's doubles, Indonesia's Andrian Raturandang and Yoon Yong-il cruised to the quarterfinals after beating South Africans Willem Peti Meyer and Jaco Van Der West 6-3, 6-1. The second seeds will play fourth seeded Kaneko and Tsujino, who beat the local duo of Edo Bawono and Da Costa 6-3, 6-3.

Thai brothers Narathorn and Paradorn Srichaphan also reached the semifinals after upsetting top-seeded Ford and Niko Karagiannis of Greece 7-6, 6-2. They will meet third-seeded Kutsenko and Timur Ganiev of Uzbekistan. Kutsenko and Ganiev defeated home favorites Hendri and Febi 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. (ivy)