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