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