Australia stunned by Indonesia
Australia stunned by Indonesia 
From correspondents in Bangkok, Thailand
Former Australian Captain January 31, 2008
THE Australia Fed Cup team suffered a shock 2-1 loss to Indonesia in the Asia/Oceania zone group one competition in Bangkok.
The Aussies were missing the injured Alicia Molik and Samantha Stosur, as well as the retired Nicole Pratt, but still should have had too much experience for Indonesia.
Instead, Indonesia claimed both singles rubbers to grab an unassailable lead in the tie.
Called up to replace the injured Molik, who picked up a calf injury during Wednesday’s 2-1 win over New Zealand, 17-year-old Jessica Moore made her Fed Cup debut.
Moore proved no match for Ayu Fani Damayanti, losing 6-3 6-4.
In the second rubber, Sandy Gumulya edged out Casey Dellacqua 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) in a tightly fought contest.
Dellacqua and Rennae Stubbs then combined to win the doubles rubber 6-2 6-1 against Lavinia Tananta and Vivien Silfany and score Australia’s only point for the tie.
Australia captain David Taylor said the loss of three top 100 singles players from the team had hurt Australia.
“We lost Samantha Stosur to illness, Nicole Pratt to retirement and Alicia Molik through injury, so I think we definitely struggled a bit because of that,'’ he said.
“I still believe we had a team that could have got through today, but unfortunately just didn’t get the job done.
“Indonesia played the necessary tennis at the necessary times and we didn’t.
“All we can do is re-group and learn and try to get our team healthy and give it another crack.
“There is a slim chance we could still get through; a lot of things have to fall our way. If we can go out there and win 3-0 tomorrow against India and have a bit of luck with the other teams, who knows?'’
The round robin stage will be contested until Friday, with the top teams from each pool playing the final on Saturday. The winner will advance to the World Group II play-offs in April 2008.
AAP