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.