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)