Angelique Widjaja advances to Volvo Open semis

Angelique Widjaja advances to Volvo Open semis

Agence France-Presse, Pattaya, Thailand

Indonesia's Angelique Widjaja advances to the semifinals of the
US$110,000 Volvo Open after defeating Shinobu Asogoe of Japan in
the first leg of the quarterfinals matches here on Friday.

Angie, as the 17-year-old Indonesian is nicknamed, outlasted
the Japanese player 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to set up a match in the
semifinals against Tatiana Panova of Russia.

The top seed Panova edged through a tight battle with Adrianna
Serra Zanetti of Italy, before winning 7-5, 7-5 on Friday.

Another semifinalist was South Korean Yoon-Jeong Cho, who
defeated host favorite Tamarine Tanasugarn in straight sets 6-4,
6-2 on Friday.

Cho will play another Russian Lina Krasnoroutskaya, who
outclassed eighth seed Sylvija Talaja of Croatia 6-3, 6-2 also on
Friday.

Second seed Tamarine performed far below the standard that has
made her a solid member of the world top 30, and although she
could not really explain her poor performance, she suggested that
the end of a long season which included a run to the final of the
recent Asian Games was partly to blame.

"I think today is the worst day since I've been playing
tennis," said Tamarine. "I didn't really play well, but she was
playing well and didn't miss any shots."

Although Tamarine twice broke Cho's serve, for 1-0 and 4-3,
she immediately dropped her own serve to lose the advantage.

She then conceded her serve to love to surrender the opening
set, and put herself on the back foot by dropping her serve to
love again to go down 2-0 in the second.

"Some days you have your good days and sometimes your bad
days," the Thai said.

"It's been difficult this week. I didn't start very well and
probably I need some rest because I've been playing a lot this
year."

Panova also admitted she was feeling the effects of a long
season, and revealed the tropical heat had also troubled her.

"Today was so hot, so I couldn't play that well," said Panova.
"She was running well and it was tough to find an opening against
her. Also I'm tired because it's the end of the season, so it was
good to be able to win a tough match like that."

Krasnoroutskaya is ranked 221 in the world after missing much
of the year with a knee injury, but after four months of play she
is once more finding her feet.

"My game is going up and up, and finally I'm finding my
confidence again. I think that's why I'm doing so well this
week," said Krasnoroutskaya.