Foreign players grabbed singles' titles at "ITF Grade 4 Widjojo Soejono Semen Gresik Junior Championships" in Surabaya, East Java. In the girls' final, a qualifier of China, Zheng Sai Sai was truly an "amazing race" star and stole the show by taking her maiden title today. After several hours of rain delay, then the final match was staged in the early afternoon and this 14 years-old Zheng secured "winning ugly" over top seeded and talented Tanvi Shah of India. In the opening set, Zheng quickly led 5-1 only then her opponent Shah waved white flag as sign of retiring from the match. Apparently Shah has been suffering weak health condition for a couple of days but she forced herself to play. This morning she woke up and felt stiff on her neck.
Over the week, unranked Zheng has been performing well with her tenacity, persistency and solid groundstrokes. She could play well, both combination of aggressive offense and solid defense. In particular, she showed her strong ability as an attacking retriever so some fans called her "the Great Wall". En route to the final, she made an upset over fourth seeded Anaeve Pain of New Caledonia 6-3, 6-3 in the second round. It was real warning for everyone since then. In the semi-final, Zheng's scare continued on. This time she toppled second seeded and the biggest hope of Indonesia, Laili Rahmawati Ulfa 6-4, 6-1. Rahmawati flunked to reach her second final of her career in ITF Grade 4. Last year, a native from Wonogiri, Central Java ended also in the semi-final and booted out by the eventual winner, Angelina Jogasuria. Like everyone else, Zheng will play the next tourney in Solo ITF Grade 4 this coming week. Meanwhile Rahmawati will not defend her semi-final's points in Solo this time, as she was committed already with her coach, Suharyadi - Yayuk Basuki's husband - to represent Jakarta at Regional Student Games in Riau.
In the boys' singles, the final match was much interesting to witness as Indonesian last hope, 15th seeded Tito Parulian Hutauruk played against 3rd seeded Sam Barry of Ireland. Barry bounced back to defeat Bandung resident Hutauruk 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 and obtained his second title of ITF Grade 4 after Estonia last June. Barry was outclassed by Hutauruk and lost easily in the opening set. Barry began the battle with poor performance and Hutauruk took the advantage to lead 5-0 and secured the first set 6-1. In the second set, both players tied at 5-5 then Barry broke his opponent's service to close it out 7-5. In the final set, this Irish boy trailed 1-5 but then he regained his own game and worn his opponent out by winning 6 consecutive games to end the match.
Hutauruk admitted that he ran out of gas towards the end and had difficulty to move on the court. With lack of stamina, Hutauruk's concentration also diminished sharply. All in all, it was Hutauruk's best outcome in ITF junior circuit with such first final ever. En route to final, a son of former national player Togap Hutauruk crushed top seeded and defending champion, Vedran Ljubicic of Croatia 6-2, 7-6(4) in round 16.
Photo of Barry is courtesy of www.irelandtennis.ie
Photo of Hutauruk is courtesy of www.jawapos.co.id
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