Title holders win opener at World Doubles

Title holders win opener at World Doubles

JAKARTA (JP): Defending champions Paul Haarhuis and Jacco
Eltingh of the Netherlands entertained a small but lively crowd
at the Senayan Indoor stadium with an opening win over Spanish
team of Sergio Casal and Emilio Sanchez in the ATP World Doubles
finals yesterday.

Playing in the Red Group before cheering fans, the Dutch team
survived a tight second set on course to a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)
victory. They now look forward to another win to secure their
berth to the semifinals.

They will have to face another thriller as they play Canadian-
American duo of Grant Connell and Patrick Galbraith who outlasted
Sweden's Davis Cuppers Jan Apell and Jonas Bjorkman with the same
score 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) later yesterday.

The match pitting the Dutch hard court specialists against the
Spanish clay court experts was long awaited since both pairs had
avoided meeting each other this year.

The top seeds, who racked up eight titles on the road to
arriving here, displayed a masterful serve and volley game
against their Spanish rivals who struggled to capitalize on the
fast surface of the court. It took the big serving Dutchmen only
20 minutes to seal the first set, thanks to Casal's broken serve
in the fourth game.

But the second set was a far different story. The smart idea
of making as many as possible approach efforts to the net helped
Casal and Sanchez save their serves, while both Eltingh and
Haarhuis tallied their netted service returns.

A number of acrobatic clashes around the net, which received
warm applause from the around 500 spectators, highlighted the
match.

Then the Spaniards found their hopes of winning the set nose-
dive, following a bad call over Sanchez's serve in the tiebreak
opener.

"It was a close match and we have no complaint about how we
played," said Sanchez, who was clearly a trace upset over the
call, during the press conference after the match.

Both Haarhuis and Eltingh backed the umpire's decision to
overrule the line call, but said it did not have anything to do
with their performance.

The world number one team who took most of their eight titles
on hard court and in indoor tournaments, believed the victory
opened up their chances to retain their trophy.

Woodies win

In the White Group match earlier yesterday, Australian second
seeds Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde got off to a comfortable
start toward regaining the crown, beating the Dutch-Czech
combination of Tom Nijssen and Cyril Suk in straight sets 6-2, 6-
4.

"We could play better actually. In some ways, however, we had
formed a solid partnership during the match," said Woodforde, who
shared the glory with Woodbridge two years ago in Johannesburg.

The "Woodies" wasted only an hour to stop the multinational
team who looked to have trouble with their second serves.
Woodbridge poured down his big serves to keep his team in charge,
as Nijssen and Suk, who are making their fourth appearance at the
season-ending tournament, could not match the power of play.

A nervous Nijssen broke his own serve at the opening game,
before Suk added another break in the third to allow the
Australians a 3-0 lead.

Suk crashed to a crucial broken serve in the seventh game of
the second set, and the Woodies' victory was just a matter of
time.

Another White Group match, which opened the four-day round-
robin tournament yesterday, saw sixth seeds David Adams and
Andrei Olhovskiy come from behind to upset third seeds Byron
Black and Jonathan Stark 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

"We were not warm enough in the opening set, until we found
our form halfway to the second set," Adams said. The Australian-
Russian pair squandered their 5-3 lead in the deciding set while
Olhovskiy holding his serve.

Today's program

2.00 p.m.
Black/Stark v Nijssen/Suk
Adams/Olhovskiy v Woodbridge/Woodforde

7.30 p.m.
Eltingh/Haarhuis v Connell/Galbraith
Sanchez/Casal v Apell/Bjorkman