Taipei saves no. 1 for David doubles
Taipei saves no. 1 for David doubles
JAKARTA (JP): Surprisingly, Chinese Taipei yesterday decided not to field its number one singles player Lien Yu-hui in the opening match against Indonesia at the second round of the Davis Cup play-off at Senayan tennis stadium this morning.
Instead, Chinese Taipei will field its number three Chen Wei- ju against Indonesia's number two Suwandi in the first singles competition, while Indonesia's number three Bonit Wiryawan will face Taipei's number two Chen Chih-jung in the second singles match.
Yu-hui will only play in the doubles tomorrow. Paired with Chih-jung, they will take on Donny Susetyo and Teddy Tanjung, the men's doubles bronze medalists at last year's Asian Games in Hiroshima.
Chinese Taipei's coach Hwang Moon-Coul said Yu-hui was not fielded in the singles because he is a specialist on a hard court. This, however, might not be the real reason. Suwandi, Bonit and Donny have all at one time defeated Yu-hui on hard courts.
Host Indonesia chose a clay court over a hard court. Moon-Coul earlier told reporters he wondered why Indonesia preferred a clay court given that Suwandi and Donny are both good on hard courts.
Non-playing captain and coach Wailan Walalangi, on the other hand, could only guess Moon-Coul's reasoning behind Yu-hui's absence.
"Perhaps they don't field their best player because they just want their less-experienced players to draw skill from playing more experienced opponents," Wailan said.
Yu-hui himself, when asked by reporters about his absence in the singles, offered only a short comment, "No problem. It's okay that I am not going to play in the singles."
Wailan, believing a clay court will benefit his team, said he would not belittle Chinese Taipei's team even though it did not field its best players. But Coach Moon-Coul said that the team he brought here is the best team Taiwan has.
Moon-Coul, knowing that Indonesia has dropped its number one Benny Widjaja who is now playing for a Taiwanese club, said that Benny has never played any of his team members. He believes that Benny's absence from the Indonesian team will make no difference, as it will remain a strong team.
For Suwandi, Wei-ju is no stranger. Suwandi beat him 6-2 6-3 at an Asian tennis championship last year. But coach Moon-Coul quickly warned that Wei-ju was the champion of an international tennis tournament in Singapore two weeks ago.
As for Bonit, he has never met Chih-jung before, but he has defeated Yu-hui in a tennis championship in Korea.
Wailan and Moon-Coul both boasted that their side will win the first two singles and take a 2-0 lead today, though neither dared predict what the final score would be.
Honorary referee Hiroyuki Yahata of Japan said the matches will adopt the best of five sets system.
For Indonesia the victory will bring it to the zonal group second round against host South Korea.
In the last two encounters against Chinese Taipei, Indonesia won both the ties. The first was in November 1978 when Senayan was also the venue for the matches with host Indonesia winning 4- 0.
Three years later Indonesia defeated Chinese Taipei on its home ground with another emphatic win of 4-1(arf).
Today's program 10 a.m. Suwandi (486) vs Chen Wei-ju (1022); Bonit Wiryawan (687) vs Chen Chih-jung
Saturday fixture 12 a.m. Donny Susetyo (703)/Teddy Tanjung (1215) vs Lien Yu-hui (549)/Chen Chih-jung
Sunday 10 a.m. Suwandi vs Chen Chih-jung; Bonit Wiryawan vs Chen Wei-ju