Top seeds clear first hurdles at Thamrin Cup

Top seeds clear first hurdles at Thamrin Cup

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Top seeds in the boys' category at the Thamrin Cup International
Junior Championships here advanced to the second round
unchallenged on Tuesday.

Top seed Hsieh Wang Cheng of Chinese Taipei did not drop a
single game in his 6-0, 6-0 drubbing of Indonesian Andri Cubung.
Local hopefuls Al-Imron and Eko Kurniawan, who are seeded second
and third respectively, faced few hurdles from their opponents.

Al-Imron was made to run only in the second set in his 6-3, 7-
5 victory over Neils Koesoemahadi. Eko had it equally as easy
with his 6-1, 7-5 win over Takanobu Fujii of Japan.

The annual tournament is under way at the Hilton Hardcourts in
Central Jakarta.

In the girls field, the opening round proved to be too much
for top seed Heesun Lyoo-suh of South Korea, fifth seed Julianne
Welford and eighth seed Johanna Morrison, both from Australia.

Heesun was unlucky in her match against Joanne Cheung of Hong
Kong. The Korean won the first set 6-4 but had to retire due a
stomach problem.

Welford lost to host player Ayu Fani Damayanti 6-3, 6-2, while
compatriot Morrison went down to Korean Kim Hae-sung 6-3, 6-1.

The other five seeds, including Indonesians Septi Nindya
Yutami and Maya Rosa, went through.

Septi, who was a member of the Indonesian side that lost in
the Junior Fed Cup last month, needed two hours to overcome
compatriot Eliza Rustandar. After an easy 6-0 win in the opening
seed, the third seed had to fight back from 3-5 down to seal the
second set 7-6.

In another all-Indonesian match, second seed Maya brushed
aside Monica Sales 6-1, 6-1.

A total of 380 players from 16 countries are taking part in
the event, which is split into U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18 age
group divisions. All foreign players are competing in the U-18
category.