Young players win opener at Masters

Young players win opener at Masters

JAKARTA (JP): In the absence of national top players, young
tennis prodigies blasted their way to their opening wins over
their seniors at the Indonesia Masters championships yesterday.

Women's singles top seed Irawati Moerid, national number four,
became the biggest casualty at the opening day of the season-
ending tournament played at Hilton tennis court when she went
down 0-6, 6-7 (4-7) at the hand of Maria Veronica.

Teenager Agustine Limanto came from behind to spoil second
seed Tanya Soemarno's championship campaign, winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-
2 after one and a half hour of a hard-fought battle.

Another second stringer, Eny Sulistyowati, who is seeded
third, also got off to a flying start when she trounced Lamsriati
Moerid 6-0, 6-0.

Men's singles number one Benny Wijaya, Indonesia's tennis
queen Yayuk Basuki, last year's women's singles champion Romana
Tedjakusuma and women's singles number three Natalia Soetrisno
skip the Rp 50 million (US$25,000) tournament which serves as an
appetizer for the national congress held by the Indonesian Tennis
Association (Pelti) at the week-end in Denpasar, Bali.

The congress will elect Pelti's new board members for the next
four-year term. Incumbent Cosmas Batubara, former Minister of
Manpower, has indicated that he preferred a "regreening" in the
new board.

Yayuk was allowed to miss the tennis meet since her world
ranking of 29 extremely overshadows those of other players.
Romana opted to pull out of the week-long tournament due to her
illness.

Benny and Natalia are having their overseas program in
Australia.

Men's singles defending champion Suwandi sailed to a
comfortable 6-3, 6-4 opening win over Aga Soemarno and looks set
to retain his title.

Suwandi's fellow Davis Cup team member Dony Susetyo struggled
all the way but managed to tame former national top player Dede
Suhendar 7-5, 6-4. (amd)