Agustin ousted from Wismilak Open

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's Agustin Limanto was ousted yesterday from the WTA Tour Wismilak Open tennis tournament after a 6-2, 6- 3 loss to Annabel Ellwood of Australia at the Embong Sawo courts, Surabaya, during the tournament's first round.

In the doubles, partnering with Maria Widyadharma, Agustin suffered another defeat. The pair succumbed to 6-1, 6-0 to second seed Nana Miyagi of Japan and Stephanie Reece of the United States.

Agustin, a lucky loser who entered the main draw due to third seed Petra Kamstra's leg injury, struggled hard with her big serves to answer Annabel's quick and accurate spins, volleys and slices in the first set. Yet, Agustin was unable to answer her opponent's perfect ball placings.

Unseeded Annabel finished the first set easily with a 6-2 victory in just half an hour.

In the second set, Agustin tried to be more aggressive, relying on her big serves and volleys. But Annabel added more confidence to her play and continued to control the match.

In just 28 minutes Annabel disposed of her opponent 6-3.

Miyagi

Eighth seed Miyagi was also out in the first round after her 6-3, 6-1 defeat to Qian Yijing of China on Tuesday women's singles.

The doubles specialist, no longer playing in a pair with Indonesia number one Yayuk Basuki, already looked shaky in the first set.

Her spins and volleys showed a lack of concentration while Qian, on the other hand, played energetically with big serves and backhand slices which were difficult to handle.

Leading 4-1, unseeded Qian quickly quenched her thirst for a victory and closed off the first set with a 6-3 win.

In the second set, Miyagi, who ranks 114th in the world, made several attempts to attack more aggressively, only to find herself becoming more error-prone and suffering a 6-1 loss.

Miyagi blamed lack of tension in her racquet's strings for her loss. "I asked a linesman to hand me another racquet. But it was of the same tension," a frustrated Miyagi said.

The other results yesterday afternoon were Sarah Pitkowski (Fra) bt Anique Snijders 6-3, 6-3; Weng Tzu-Ting (Tai) bt Tina Krizan (Slo) 6-3, 6-2; Rubbi Lea Ghirardi/Sarah Pitowski (Fra) bt Ann Grosman/Kristoine Radford (USA/Aus) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3). (arf)