The top four finishers in a photo-call with SLTA president Dato Patrick Liew (fifth left), tournament director Douglas Telajan (third left), ITF referee Puneet Gupta (fourth left) and organising committee members (from second right) Bernard Chin and Kho Siak Khoi after the prize presentation.
KUCHING: Australia completed an “incredible” week of tennis at the SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday when they overcame surprise package Indonesia 2-0 in the final of the Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying of the Junior Fed Cup.
Anastasia Berezov put Australia one up when she beat Janice Tjen 6-2, 6-0 in the first singles while Olivia Maria Gadecki rounded up the Aussie win after she beat Priska Madelyn Nugroho 6-4, 6-4 in the second singles.
“We had an incredible week of tennis here. We were seeded sixth and we really had tough matches on day three, four and day five where we won two super-tie breaks and we saved one match point against Japan.
“To get here today, we played amazing tennis and I couldn’t be more proud of the girls and we are excited to be in Budapest,” said a delighted Australia captain Emma Doyle who is leading the junior girls team again after 13 years.
According to her, Australia were regularly playing in the Final Qualifying and also qualified for the world finals in 2015 where they went on to be the champions.
“In Budapest, we will be embarking on the same approach we took here, taking a match at the time. You don’t know the draw and the rankings doesn’t mean anything. I think at junior level, it is day by day, court by court, match by match, game style by game style and most importantly for coaches out there it is how you tap into the mentality of bringing out the best of the girls,” added Emma.
“The matches were really good, we got so much experience in playing this tournament,” said Indonesia team captain Ryan Tanujoyo.
“l think the Australian girls played so much better today. Actually our target was to finish in the top four and qualify for the world finals.
“I think we had a good momentum especially when we played against Thailand and that win gave our girls the much needed confidence to go further,” he added.
“We also qualified 10 years ago but this is the first time we finished second, which is a historic achievement for Indonesia. It was a good result,” he said, adding that the experience two of the players had gained playing in the ITF Junior Circuit had really helped in their campaign here in Kuching.
In preparing the team for Budapest, Ryan said his girls will be playing in some ITF tournaments as well as local events. Hong Kong also made history when both the boys and girls teams made it to the world finals for the first time.
In yesterday’s play-off for third and fourth positions, Hong Kong edged Japan 2-1.
Kirara Morioka beat Sheena Jade Masada Karrasoh 6-1, 7-5 but Jenny Wong Hoi Ki beat Himari Sato 6-4, 6-2 to tie the score 1-1 before Jenny Wong-Sheena tamed Himari-Kirara 6-3, 6-3.
Top seeds China suffered more misery when they finished in sixth place after losing 2-0 to Thailand and Chinese Taipei were seventh after they edged South Korea 2-1.
Uzbekistan came in 10th place with a 2-0 win over Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, Malaysia rounded up their campaign in 12th position after losing to India 2-0 in the playoff.
Bhakti Bharat Parwani beat Hannah Yip Seen Ean 6-3, 6-2 and Sharifah Elysia Wan Abdul Rahman retired after leading Tanisha Kashyap 4-5 due to back injury.
Debutant Mongolia ended up in last place after losing 0-2 to Singapore.
Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Japan qualified for the Budapest world finals in September while Singapore and Mongolia were demoted to the Asia/Oceania Pre-Final Qualifying.