Teenage players set up Masters final showdown

JAKARTA (JP): Teenage players highlighted the Indonesia Masters tennis championships yesterday as Enny Sulistyowati and Wukirasih Sawondari set up the women's singles final, a reminder of their clash in the Indonesia Junior Masters final last year.

Enny, currently national number seven, maintained her winning track in yesterday's last round-robin match in Group B when old- crack Irawati Moerid gave up her match due to stomach problems. Enny, who just needed one set to secure her final berth, lost 2-6 in the opening set but fought back to take the second set 7-5. Irawati left the court when the deciding set was about to start.

"It's nice to reach the final. Maybe I won't get a second chance if I had of missed this one," said 14-year-old Enny, who hails from Sukoharjo, a small town in Central Java.

The Indonesian Tennis Association omitted the cross-over semifinals this year, allowing winners of each group to meet in the finals.

World number 29, and Indonesia's best player, Yayuk Basuki, Romana Tedjakusuma and Natalia Soetrisno, national number two and three respectively, skipped the season-ending tournament.

Smarting from the first set defeat, Enny took the initiative with her superb combination of serve and volley which had 25-year-old Irawati running throughout the second set. Enny drilled her crosscourts to break Irawati's serve in the 12th game.

In the Group A top-of-the-table match, Wukirasih saved a match point to upset Agustine Limanto 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 in a battle of lobs lasting two hours.

Agustine raced to a match point when she held the serve at 5- 4. However, she missed the most crucial point as she lobbed wide her backhand return which cost her a broken serve. Frustrated- looking Agustine could not keep cool, while Wukirasih found her rhythm to easily take the tiebreaker and the deciding set.

Enny last met Wukirasih in the Indonesia Junior Masters final last year, with Enny surviving a marathon four-hour match.

The upset continued in the men's singles when Dony Susetyo snapped four straight losses to Suwandi with a 3-6, 4-6, 4-6 win in a service breaking play lasting more than two hours to advance to the final.

Dony will now face national number three Eddy Kusdaryanto who took the advantage of Sulistyo Wibowo's retirement due to illness. Sulistyo was 0-6 down and trailed 1-4 when he opted to leave the court. Both Dony and Eddy will make their first finals appearance.

Dony displayed his best serve-and-volley tennis, keeping the charges to the net to stop Suwandi's powerful passing shots. Defending champion Suwandi lost his determination -- and his hopes to walk away with the winner's check of Rp 4.5 million (US$2,000) -- when he dropped his fourth game of the match at 2-2 in the deciding set.

"I played it safe today. I just tried to hit every return for points since I knew Suwandi had run out of steam," Dony said. (amd)