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.