Yi, Sunu lead seeds' charge in junior ITF tennis tourney

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Yi Chu Huan of Chinese Taipei and Sunu Wahyu Trijati of Indonesia faced few problems in their second-round matches as the seeded players continued their charge in the 2003 ITF Indonesia Junior Tennis Championships here on Thursday.

Top seed Yi advanced to the quarterfinal round after defeating Derek Drabble of South Africa 6-3, 6-2, while second seed Sunu, who was later in the day assured of sponsorship to take part in the Junior Australian Open next year, crushed compatriot Tio Lana Putra 6-1, 6-2.

Other seeded players who sealed their quarterfinal berths were seventh seed Elbert Sie and eighth seed Claudio Halim, fourth seed Roman Kelecic of Croatia and 12th seed Lee Meng-Hua of Chinese Taipei.

Meanwhile, third seed Immanuel Prakoso, one of the Indonesian favorites, had to leave the competition early after he suffered an upset 6-3, 6-4 defeat by twin brother Immanuel Prabowo.

His win on Thursday saw his continued determination at the tournament after outplaying 16th seed Igor Markota of Croatia 2- 6, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.

Prabowo will meet compatriot Agung Bagus Dewantoro in the quarterfinals on Friday.

The quarterfinal matches in the girls singles category will also be held on Friday, with top seed Liu Wan Ting of China to meet seventh seed Indian Gangothri Sandri, and second seed Ayu Fani Damayanti of Indonesia to play wild carder Tori Kinard of the United States.

The other pairings will be all-Indonesian dates. Third seed Denise Harijanto is up against Nancy Metriya, and fourth seed Febri Joana against sixth seed Dian Mayasari.

Sixty-four boys and 32 girls are taking part in the tournament, which will run until Nov. 16.

Meanwhile, Sunu Wahyu Trijati, Lavinia Tananta, Agung Bagus Dewantoro and Lutfiana Aris Budiharto have been awarded the tournament scholarship following their victories at the recent Masters Series of the Hemaviton Challenge 2003 junior tennis championships.

The sponsorship is worth a total of US$10,000.

Sunu and Lavinia won the under-18 in the boys' and girls' category respectively and are being given the chance to take part in the 2004 Junior Australia Open.

Agung and Lutfiana, the winners in the boy's and girls' under- 14, will be heading to the ITF India Junior Circuit in December.