Sunu leads Indonesia to a date with Uzbekistan
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Sunu Wahyu Trijati overcame a sore back to beat Rade Radinovich and led Indonesia to a 2-0 victory over New Zealand on Thursday, securing the team a place in the quarterfinals of the Junior Davis Cup competition here.
Sunu defeated Radinovich 6-3, 6-2 in a rain-delayed match at the Bung Karno tennis courts. Earlier, Anthony Mukti Tan lost only three games in his 6-2, 6-1 dismantling of James Pilbro.
Top-seeded Indonesia leads Group One with two wins and in the quarterfinals will meet Uzbekistan, which finished as the runner- up in Group Four behind second-seeded India.
India is drawn against Group One runner-up Hong Kong in the quarters.
The other quarterfinals pairings are Thailand (Group Two winner) and South Korea (Group Three runner-up), and Chinese- Taipei (Group Three winner) and Sri Lanka (Group Two runner-up).
"It will be a tough match. Anthony's opponent is dangerous. Our chances are maybe fifty-fifty," Indonesian coach Yustejo Tarik said of his side's showdown with Uzbekistan.
Anthony will likely meet Vaja Uzakov, who pushed Sumit Prakas Gupta to three sets in Uzbekistan's 2-0 loss to India on Thursday.
Play on Thursday was halted by rain for more than two hours during the second singles matches. Play eventually resumed but the rain returned to wash out the doubles matches.
As it happened the doubles matches were not needed, with Indonesia, India, Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines all holding unassailable 2-0 leads over their opponents.
Japan had already routed Oman 3-0 when play was called off because of the rain.
In Indonesia's match against New Zealand, Sunu took the first set 6-3 and the second set was tied at two games apiece when the rain began to fall.
When play resumed, the Indonesian promptly broke Radinovich's serve and was unstoppable in taking the set 6-2 to complete his victory.
"I had a pain in my back. I don't know how it started. I started to feel when I woke up this morning. It hurt me during my serve," Sunu said after the match.
Meanwhile, the Women's Circuit tennis tournament enters the semifinal stage here on Friday, with Wukirasih Sawondari of Indonesia set to face top-seeded Chia Jung Chuang of Chinese- Taipei. Another Indonesian, Liza Andriyani, will take on Khoo Chin Bee of Malaysia.
Wukirasih reached the semifinals by beating fourth-seeded Australian Tiffany Welford 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) on Thursday.
Liza advanced by defeating fellow Indonesian Maya Rosa Stefanie 6-3, 6-1. Khoo stopped Hwang I-hsuan of Chinese-Taipei 6-2, 6-4, while Chuang was pushed to three sets in her 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) victory over Maki Arai of Japan.