Angelique defeats bug and opponent

Angelique defeats bug and opponent

Agence France-Presse, Pattaya, Thailand

Indonesia's Angelique Widjaja overcame both a stomach upset and Sandra Kleinova on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the women's open in the Thai resort of Pattaya.

She defeated her Czech opponent 6-4, 6-1 on just a few hours sleep after waking at dawn to consult a doctor.

Angelique's sluggish performance went unpunished by Kleinova. The Indonesian failed to convert three break points when leading 2-1, but finally broke on her sixth break point to lead 5-3.

Although she then dropped her own serve by sending an easy ball beyond the baseline, she broke again to love to take the set.

In the second set, Angelique swiftly built a 4-0 lead as Kleinova struggled with her serve. She exploited the weakness on one occasion by hitting a winning drop shot return, and Kleinova finished with 11 double-faults.

"I'm happy because I won, but I'm not playing at 100 percent. I wasn't confident today with my ground strokes," Angelique said.

"But my serve was working today and that helped me a lot. I'm surprised this week that I'm getting about 80 percent of my first serves in."

In the quarterfinals match, Angelique will face Japanese Shinobu Asagoe, who also advanced by outlasting Russia's Anastassia Rodionova 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Silvija Talaja was the only seed in action on Thursday. After being taken to three sets in her opening match the Croatian eighth seed was forced into another long struggle by French qualifier Stephanie Cohen Aloro before emerging with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory.

"I don't know what it is. It's always a drama with me," said Talaja, who finished strongly by dropping just four points on serve in the final set.

"I came here tired but I like Pattaya so much I had to come," she added. "In the third set I was taking risks on every point and playing more aggressive."

There was victory for 221st-ranked Russian wild card Lina Krasnoroutskaya, who continued her comeback from a long injury break by beating Magdalena Grzybowska of Poland 6-3, 6-1.