Tennis aficionados will have a chance to watch top Indonesian tennis players in action at the inaugural Garuda Indonesia Masters tournament at the Sultan Hotel, Central Jakarta, from Dec. 10-14.

"This tournament will be the pinnacle of the five-tournament series this year. Only the best players in the overall rankings will qualify for the Masters," Tournament director Teddy Tanjung told reporters on Tuesday.

Eight top players will compete in the men's singles, eight in women's singles, eight pairs in men's doubles and four pairs in women's doubles.

"This tournament will offer the most prize money ever offered up *at a sporting contest* in Indonesia. This prize may heat up the competition," Teddy said, adding that some Rp 500 million (US$40,650) was up for grabs.

In men's singles, Elbert Sie currently tops the standings with 588 points, followed by Sunu Wahyu Trijati with 566 and former national champion Prima Simpatiaji with 564.

Sitting in places four to eight are Adrian Raturandang, Christopher Rungkat, Sebastian Dacosta, Surya Wijaya Budi and Nesa Arta.

At the top of women's singles seedings is Ayu Fani Damayanti, who was dominant in the previous series with 414 points.

Evergreen Liza Andriyani trails in the second seed with a wide 250 and third place dweller Lavinia Tananta with 222.

Wimbledon junior champion in 2001, Angelique Wijaya who returned from a long hiatus to win the fifth series last week will also compete in the Masters as forth seed.

Grace Sari Ysidora, Sandy Gumulya, Lutfiana Aris Budiharto and Septi Mende are other qualifiers who are expected to play in the tournament.

"I have prepared well for the tournament. I have been training every day," top seed Ayu Fani Damayanti said recently.

Ranked no. 595 in the world, Ayu will have a tough time against 2007 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medalist Sandy Gumulya who has a higher world ranking (293).

"It is most likely I will be playing in this tournament, but I have to wait until this evening to decide whether or not I compete in the Dubai event," Sandy said, referring to a US$75,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) Circuit tournament slated for Dec. 15-21 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, where Sandy is scheduled to play in the qualifying round.

Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) chairwoman Martina Widjaja said her association would use the Garuda Indonesia Masters to establish players' national rankings, and to select players to represent Indonesia at the Fed Cup and Davis Cup international competitions next year.

"Hopefully we will find the best players for the Fed Cup and Davis Cup squad for next year," Martina said.

During Tuesday's press briefing, Martina also announced that the national carrier, Garuda Indonesia, which is also the title sponsor for the Masters event, had agreed to sponsor the Indonesian Fed Cup squad to play in the Asia/Oceania Group I in February 2009 in Perth, Australia.

Garuda Indonesia CEO Emirsyah Satar said his company was committed to sponsoring future tennis events.

"Garuda is focused on sponsoring several sports and tennis is one of them. This is only the beginning as we intend to continue doing this (sponsorships) in coming years," Emirsyah said.

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