Young guns of tennis enter Masters Series

Young guns of tennis enter Masters Series

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group of young players will be looking for a free ticket to
free one-time overseas tournaments when they enter the Junior
Masters Series tennis championships starting on Monday at the
Bung Karno Tennis Courts.

The six-day tournament is the final in the series of the 2003
Hemaviton Challenge junior tennis championships with the
participants made up of the top-16 players in the under-14 and
under-18 categories, with both boys and girls competitions from
the preceding two series.

The first series was held also in Jakarta in March while the
second in Surabaya, East Java, in August.

A total of 64 players will be competing, however, Maya Rosa,
and Septi Mended, the winners of first and second series in the
girls' 18-under, will not feature in the competition and
automatically lose their chance of free overseas trips.

Sandy Gumulya, who would be another favorite, also misses out.

The three, who are members of the national squad for the
upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, will be playing in the Afro
Asian Games 2003 in India on Oct. 24-25, as part of the national
team schedule.

Their exit from tourney means it is up for grabs for another
group of players comprising Dian Anggraini, Lavinia Tananta,
Denise Harjanto and Ayu Fani Damayanti.

In the boys' category, Indonesia's rising star Sunu Wahyu
Trijati, the winner of both series, and runner-up Christian
Adinata will continue their campaign.

The competition also contests doubles in each category but it
is only the singles events that will be given the reward of free
overseas trip.

The 16 players in each category will be paired in a round
robin system with the top eight qualifying for the final round.

Yayuk Basuki, a former Indonesian tennis star, who chairs the
organizing committee, said that the sponsorship would be worth a
total of US$10,000.