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.