Suwandi disappoints fans at Indosiar Open

Suwandi disappoints fans at Indosiar Open

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian best men's singles player Suwandi
disappointed his home fans with an erratic game in his 6-2, 6-7
(9-11), 5-7 first-round defeat to Mauricio Hadad of Colombia in
the Indosiar Open tennis championships yesterday.

The original slow starter Suwandi draw cheers from a victory
hunger crowd with his consistent play on the baseline to take the
opening set. But the 19-year-old Indonesian squandered his great
chance to win when all he needed was a little bit of endurance
and determination.

It was Suwandi's fourth early exit in his four appearance as a
wildcard receiver at the tournament, formerly called the
Indonesia Open.

Suwandi, whose neat volleys enthused the sparse crowd of 100,
broke Hadad's serve for a 5-3 lead. Serving for the match,
however, Suwandi eased off and let Hadad make a brilliant
comeback.

Hadad then capitalized on the error-prone game played by
Suwandi, who drilled back wide returns, to draw level at 5-5 and
then force a tiebreak.

During the tiebreak, a tired looking Suwandi made unforced
errors that left Hadad 6-2 up. Suwandi then made a surprising
move to fight back, but it proved short-lived.

Suwandi clinched a match point twice at 7-6 and 9-8, but he
quickly returned to his error-ridden game in the crucial points.
He wasted everything with two netted volleys and let Hadad regain
ground.

Hadad, also an erratic player, opened the deciding set with a
broken serve. He then easily broke Suwandi twice to get closer to
a victory.

Suwandi seemed to be making still another comeback with his
deep passing shots, but he had already lost the drive necessary
to forge a win.

Upset

Javier Sanchez of Spain became the first seeded player to make
an early exit yesterday when he crashed to Swede Mikael Tillstrom
in two sets 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) in their opening round match.

Third seed Sanchez, ranked 37th in the world, played an
aggressive serve and volley game throughout the match, but failed
to cope with Tillstrom's powerful forehands.

Playing mostly from the baseline in the 3,000-seat center
court of the Senayan tennis complex, the players battled each
other with long rallies in front of less than 100 spectators.

Tillstrom, who ranks 78 places behind Sanchez, maintained his
pace in the first set, which saw both players saving their games
for a 4-4 tie.

A wide backhand cost the Spaniard the first set.

Sanchez, who was often heard swearing at himself, produced a
double fault to drop another game in the second set, allowing
Tillstrom a 3-1 lead. Sanchez fought back to level the score
sheet at 4-4.

Both serve-and-volleyers hit every return to force a tie
break. Tillstrom kept up the pressure as Sanchez lost his
composure in the exhausting tie breaker.

Earlier on the center court, fifth seed Sjeng Schalken
of the Netherlands, ranked 67th in the world, defeated Johan van
Herck of Belgium 6-4, 6-7 (9-7), 6-0. (05/amd)