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)