Angelique cherishes her 'improved play'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite modest runs in her tournaments so far, Angelique "Angie" Widjaja, who has just entered the second year of a sponsorship deal with an electronics company, says she has not been overcome by disappointment.

"I'm not too disappointed. I lost, but by narrow defeats on many occasions. In fact, my game has been improving since last year," Angie told reporters after signing on for a second year with Samsung Electronics Indonesia (SEIN) here on Wednesday.

Entering the 2003 season, Angie had hoped to continue with her good form last year, in which she won the season's closing event in Pattaya, Thailand.

However, she found tough competition out there in her initial six events, losing out in either the first or second round on each occasion.

She began her world tour with the Canberra Women's Classic, then moving on to the Australian Open, the Toray Pan Pacific, the WTA Indian Open, the Qatar Open and the Dubai Open.

To give her credit, her play improved in the last two events, although they were doubles games.

Teaming up with Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela, Angie reached the doubles final at the Qatar Open, where they lost to the Indonesia/Chinese Taiwan pairing of Wynne Prakusya and Janet Lee.

They continued the partnership in Dubai, where they ceded the game to eventual winners Martina Navratilova and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals.

"They won, but they did not take it easily from me. I could have won it, in fact," Angie commented in particular on her singles performances in the last three tournaments. She was stopped after a close three-set match each time.

Angie had a match point four times in her second-round game in the Indian Open against Russia's Maria Kirilenko, only to bow out 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.

Angie will continue her tour with her next two events to be held in the United States in March: the Pacific Life Open in California and the Nasdaq-100 Open in Florida.

The 18-year-old, who has planned to join between 20 and 25 tournaments this year, said that her extended partnership with Samsung would encourage her to push her ranking into the top 50.

Meanwhile, Lee Kang-hyun from Samsung said that Angie had shown herself to be an international-level player, and worth the contract extension.

However, Samsung did not disclose the value of the sponsorship.