Top seeds advance to Thamrin Cup 2nd round

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta

The Thamrin Cup international junior tennis tournament kicked off on Tuesday with top seeds Albert Sie and fellow Indonesian Maya Rosa breezing through to the second round at the Senayan tennis courts.

Albert defeated Malaysian Razian Rawi 6-2, 6-3, while Maya trounced Mio Tsukada of Japan 6-0, 6-3.

Most of the boys' seeds went through, except for third seeded Indonesian Sandy Purnomo, sixth seed Shuhei Uzawa of Japan and 14th seed Lopburi Nathasiri of Thailand.

Sandi lost to Australian Nick Lindahl 6-4, 7-5, Uzawa was ousted by Tung-Han Lee of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 6-4, and Nathasiri lost 6-2, 6-2 to Ting-Lung Chang Chen also of Chinese Taipei.

Second seed Kento Takeuchi of Japan got off to a convincing start with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Canadian Jenner Stevenson, signaling that he will be a strong contender for the boys' title.

Benny Mailili, the tournament director, said Albert and Takeuchi had the best chances of winning the tournament.

"Hopefully, our player can take advantage of playing on his home turf to win the tournament," he said.

Fourth seed Ryo Sekiguchi also had little difficulty in dispatching Kim Sang-qyun Kim of South Korea 6-1, 6-3.

Other seeded players advancing to the next round included fifth seed Peerachat Chaiyapan of Thailand, seventh seed Stefan Rosani of Australia and eighth seed Jonathan Amdanu of Indonesia.

Chaiyapan fought back from a set down to beat Takero Akaba of Japan 1-6, 6-2, 6-1. Rosani and Jonathan sprinted past their opponents in straight sets.

In the girls' division, Dian Mayasari was the first seeded player to crash out of the tournament, as the eighth seed was beaten 7-5, 6-3 by fellow Indonesian Lutfiana Budiharto.

Third seed Denise Harijanto of Indonesia eased past Chikako Shimura of Japan 6-0, 6-2, while compatriot Lavinia Tananta was extended to a tiebreaker before stopping Japan's Naoko Ueshima 7- 6(3), 6-2.

Wild card Fiona Gracia Tjipto came close to upsetting seventh seed Chie Moriuchi. The Indonesian won the first set but failed to carrying the momentum forward into the next two sets, eventually losing 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

The tournament, which will run until Sunday, features about 130 junior players from 13 countries.