Angelique off to winning start on WTA Tour in Bali

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Indonesian tennis prodigy Angelique Widjaja sparkled in her baptism outing in the WTA Tour with a win at the US$170,000 Wismilak International tournament here on Tuesday.

The gifted 17-year-old Wimbledon junior champion unleashed everything she had to gun down Liu Nan Nan of China 6-2, 7-6 (9- 7) for a place in Thursday's second round, where she will meet Alicia Molik of Australia.

"Thank God I won. My prayers came true," Angie, as she is better known, said with a sigh of relief during a post-match conference.

She rued a lack of practice sessions ahead of the tier III tournament, which she partly blamed for her slowdown in the second set of her opening match.

"There was something wrong with my feet so that I couldn't make full use of my practice time. I stopped hitting the ball every 30 minutes," Angie, who received a wildcard to enter the 32-field main draw, recollected.

But playing before her home crowd who filled the Grand Hyatt tennis complex gave her a significant morale boost. She quickly raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set before allowing Liu to win her serves.

The second set could have been a nightmare for Angie, who had never met the Chinese qualifier before. Liu grew stronger to match Angie stroke for stroke in the energy-sapping slugfest.

Angie refused to underestimate Molik, who is more experienced in the Tour.

"She rarely commits unforced errors," Angie said of Molik. "But I will put up a fight. I'll do my best."

Another Indonesian, Wynne Prakusya, joined Angelique in the second round after an easy 6-1, 6-2 win over Szofia Bubacsi of Hungary. Wynne, ranked 98 in the world, will now take on Shinobu Asagoe of Japan, who upset sixth seed Mariana Diaz-Olivia 4-6, 6- 3, 6-3.

Diaz-Olivia was the second seeded casualty after No. 3 Marlene Weingartner of Germany who lost to Tina Pisnik of Slovakia 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-4 on Monday.

The odds were against Romana Tedjakusuma, a former champion of the event, who made an early exit after a 6-0, 6-2 defeat to Alexandra Fusai of France.

Like Angie, Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Romana turned up for the tournament with a wildcard facility.

Top seeded Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario arrived here from Tokyo, and said she had put her loss in the final of the Princess Cup tournament in the Japanese capital behind her.

"I'll just try to give my best here," Sanchez-Vicario told a media conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The Spanish world number 21, who received a first-round bye, will play on Wednesday Taiwan's Janet Lee, who battled for two and half hours to edge out Slovak Ludmila Cervanova 6-1, 6-7 (4- 7), 6-4 on Tuesday.

Sanchez-Vicario, who will also play doubles with Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki, is expecting her toughest opposition from second seed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, who also received a bye.

The winner of this event will receive $27,000, with the runner-up pocketing $14,500.

The tournament was brought back to Indonesia after a two-year lapse. (54)