Wynne gets closer to Olympic wild card pass
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia women's tennis hopeful Wynne Prakusya is getting closer to earning a wild card for a debut in the singles event of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney in September.
Coach Suzanna Anggarkusumah Wibowo said on Wednesday that Wynne may be under strong consideration by ITF (International Tennis Federation), especially after she managed to beat South Korean Choi Jin-young in the Fed Cup Asia Oceania Group One tournament in Osaka last month.
"Wynne's chances are great after she beat the South Korean player. Besides Wynne, another wild card for an Asian player will likely be granted to Uzbekistan.
"Earlier, China and Japan were also eyeing the wild card, but with recent developments, I heard that two Chinese players and two or three Japanese players have automatically qualified for the Olympics," said Suzanna, a former national player.
She said the wild card was usually to be granted to countries who had not qualified a single tennis player for the quadrennial event, such as Indonesia.
Wynne now ranks 169 in the world.
Suzanna said that Wynne and her senior Yayuk Basuki had hardly earned one wild card in the doubles event, given their world ranking in the 400s.
"It's very difficult for Indonesia to earn wild card in the women's doubles event. But they can possibly receive one considering that ITF has allocated three wild cards for Asian women's doubles," she said.
She said Wynne would compete in three events including the Wimbledon Championships from June 26 to July 9 before ITF announces the wild card recipient in August.
The events are the US$25,000 Challenger in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from May 22 to May 27; $140,000 Sanex WTA Tour in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from June 9 to June 18.
"Hopefully, Wynne can improve her ranking up to 165 after the Challenger in Vietnam," said Suzanna.
Tae kwon do
Meanwhile, Indonesian Taekwondo Association (TI) secretary- general Ahmad Zarkasih Hamid said that women's tae kwon doin Rahadewi Neta (finweight) and her brother Satrio Rahardani (flyweight) won bronzes in the Asian Championships in Hong Kong.
"The wins are good for them. Satrio even beat Filipino Roberto Cruz, winner of the 1999 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the finweight division, in the event," he said on Wednesday.
But another women's tae kwon doin, Juana Wangsa Putri, who is being groomed in South Korea for the 2000 Olympic Games, crashed out in the first round by an unidentified Chinese-Taipei tae kwon doin.
"Juana's coach Oh Il-nam does not force her to fight all-out because Juana is still recovering from an injury. She still has to sharpen her fighting spirit," Zarkasih said.
Juana was diagnosed in March with chronic back ache.
TI sent two more men's tae kwon doins, Nico Ardiansyah (finweight) and Alfian (featherweight), to this event but both were knocked down in the first round. Nico was the silver medalist of 1999 SEA Games and Alfian won bronze in the Inter- University tae kwon do championships in Kaohsiung, Taipei, in March.(ivy)