Yayuk, Wynne get doubles Olympic wild card

Yayuk, Wynne get doubles Olympic wild card

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian women's doubles tennis players Yayuk
Basuki and Wynne Prakusya finally earned a wild card for the
Olympic Games in Sydney from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1.

This is the second wild card awarded for Indonesia by the
International Olympics Committee (IOC). Wynne got one for the
singles event in July following a decision from tripartite
commission involving IOC, Asian National Olympics Committee
(ANOC) and International Tennis Federation (ITF).

Wynne will make her world debut in the Olympics while old hand
Yayuk is making her third appearance in the doubles event after
the 1992 Games in Barcelona with Suzanna Anggarkusumah Wibowo and
the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Georgia, with Romana Tedjakusuma.

President of the Asian Tennis Federation and technical
delegates of the Olympics Committee Eiichi Kawatei announced in a
letter to Pelti chairman Tanri Abeng on Wednesday that wild cards
were also granted to women's doubles players Janet Lee and Wong
Tzu-ting of Chinese Taipei and Cho Yoon-jeong and Park Sung-hee
of South Korea; men's doubles players Yoon Yong-il and Hyung-Taik
of South Korea; women's singles Li Na of China, Shinobu Asagoe of
Japan and Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan; and men's singles
Leander Paes of India and Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand.

No Asian men's singles managed to qualify for the quadrennial
event but there are numerous players qualified due to their high
world rankings.

Women's singles Yi Jing-qian of China, Ai Sugiyama of Japan
and Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand; women's doubles Li Na and Li
Ting of China, Sugiyama and Nana Miyagi of Japan, Tanasugarn and
Benjamas Sangaram of Thailand; and men's doubles Paes and Mahesh
Bhupati of India and Satushi Iwabuchi and Thomas Shimada of Japan
are among the qualifiers.

Spokesman for the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) Benny
Mailili said Thursday that except for Wynne, all wild card
appointees were recommended by ITF.

"I think the wild card for Yayuk and Wynne was given after
ITF's recommendation. We earlier assumed that only Wynne would
get the facility but we didn't understand that ITF also has the
authority to ask for it. ITF might have observed their
performances during the Fed Cup in April. We initially ask for
two wild cards in the women's singles and doubles events," he
said.

Benny said Yayuk and Wynne would not face tough challengers
from Asian counterparts.

"Li Na and Li Ting are very young players in their 18s. While
Tamarine and Benjamas are less skillful than our women's doubles.
I think Wynne and Yayuk are also better than Janet Lee and Wong,"
he said. (ivy)