Suwandi, Andrian receive wild card

Suwandi, Andrian receive wild card

JAKARTA (JP): Suwandi and Andrian Raturandang of Indonesia
were named yesterday wild card recipients for the US$328,000
Indosiar Men's Tennis Championships which start tomorrow.

Secretary-General of the Indonesian Tennis Association
(Pelti), Zaenal Abidin, told reporters here yesterday that the
two teenage players were picked as part of the association's
program to lift the country's young hopefuls to a new high.

Pelti also granted wild card entries to other three local
players. Other than Suwandi and Adrian who received automatic
entries to the main draw, Donny Susetyo, Edo Buwono and Sebastian
da Costa were admitted in the qualifying round.

The qualifying round started yesterday.

Zaenal shrugged off criticism for giving the rare chance of
playing in a big tournament to the youngsters, saying that the
ATP Tour-sanctioned championships will serve as a notable warm-up
for Indonesia's Davis Cup Asia Oceania first round matches
against South Korea here from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11.

The national players won three wild cards to go to the doubles
main draw. Junior pair of Febi Widayanto and Surya Widjaya will
make their debut in a professional tournament as qualifying round
wild card entrants.

The association has called up Suwandi, Adrian, Donny and Eddy
Kusdaryanto for the Cup competition, which is expected to be
played on the Indonesians' favorite gravel surface. Eddy,
national number two, qualifies for the Indosiar Open qualifying
round.

Indonesia and South Korea were tied at 4-4 in their eight
Davis Cup first-rounders, with each of them winning on home soil
but crashing out in the away match.

"We will use the incoming tournament to monitor their
preparedness for the Cup. As soon as the tournament ends, we'll
regroup them for the final polishing before meeting South Korea,"
Zaenal said. The association also named Deddy Tedjamukti the
coach and non-playing captain of the national Davis Cup team.

South Korea, which last blanked a Suwandi-led team 5-0 in
Seoul last year, has yet to confirm its line-up.

Zaenal said each team could make changes in the line-up for as
long as up to 10 days prior to the matches.

Meanwhile, organizers of the men's tennis tournament announced
yesterday that 13 players, including Sweden's Anders Jarryd,
withdrew for several reasons. Most of the participants have
arrived here.

Then second-seeded Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands won the
singles crown for his first career title last year. The Dutchman,
renowned as a doubles player specialist, will defend his title as
the top seed. (05)