Suwandi lands double victory at Cigna Open tennis tourney
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Suwandi chalked up a double victory at the injury-marred Cigna Open tennis tournament which ended here on Sunday.
Seeded second in the US$11,800 tournament, Suwandi became the new men's singles champion after he beat his Davis Cup doubles partner and top seed Hendri Susilo Pramono 6-3, 6-4, in the finals at the Hilton International Executive Club here on Sunday.
Both finalists then teamed up later to outplay the pairing of Edy Kusdaryanto and Ferdy Fauzi 6-3, 6-3 for the men's doubles title.
Non-seeded teenager Febri Joana emerged as the women's singles winner after top seed Wukirasih Sawondari retired in the second set because she pulled a muscle.
Febri, who won the first set 6-3, was leading 3-0 when Wukirasih decided to throw in the towel.
16-year-old Febri also won her semifinal match by default as second seed Ayu Fani Damayanti failed to continue the game on Saturday because of sickness.
It was revealed later that Ayu had typhoid symptoms and had to be hospitalized.
Injury also forced Sulistiyo Wibowo out to hand a quarterfinal win to Surya Wijaya on Friday.
A medical official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Jakarta Post that most young players neglected the importance of proper nutrition and rest.
"We keep telling them what they should and should not eat, but only a few seem to listen," the official said.
While admitting to being lucky, Febri also said she deserved the victory given the fact that she won the first set and led in the second set.
Wukirasih blamed the injury on a lack of practice.
"I have not been practicing seriously for quite some time," she said.
Then the 23-year-old, whose past achievements include winning a gold at the 1997 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at the expense of Thai star Tamarine Tanasugarn, revealed her plan to quit professional tennis.
"I'm about to quit professional tennis," she said, adding that she had no longer had desire to pursue anything in professional tennis.
"However, I will still play for fun and exercise," she said.
Meanwhile, with Sunday's win, 27-year-old Suwandi has evened his head-to-head score at 4-4 against Hendri.
Suwandi proved his consistency during the match. He jumped to a 3-1 lead after breaking Hendri in the fourth game, after which the champion never looked back and took the set 6-3.
Hendri, 25, tried hard to fight back. But, with both players serving well, Hendri could only keep a one-game gap up to the ninth game when eventually Suwandi broke Hendri to take a 5-4 lead.
A punishing backhand ended Hendry's run as Suwandi produced a love game in the next for a 6-4 set victory.
Suwandi said that winning the first set gave him a boost to win the second. "Winning the first set made me play more loosely in the next set," Suwandi told the Post.
He said that Hendri played well, and added that his opponent might have felt pressure to win the second set.
Hendri said bad serves had cost him the match.
"The first set was bad, my serves did not work. You could see that I had too many second serves," he said while giving praise that his doubles partner.