Angelique/Fernandez notch up first round's win in Canberra

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Angelique Widjaja was well warmed up ahead of her singles match at the Canberra Classic women's tennis tournament when she teamed up with Argentinean Clarisa Fernandez to beat Virginie Razzano and Silvija Talaja in the first round of their doubles clash on Sunday.

Angelique/Fernandez defeated the French/Croat pair 7-6 (7-1), 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 in two and a half hours in a match that was the only doubles encounter featured on that day, according to Angelique's manager Virginia Rusli.

"Their opponents in the next round are not known yet because other doubles start their matches tomorrow (Monday)," Virginia said.

The match was tight with Razzano/Talaja fighting back during a tiebreaker in the second round after losing in the opening set.

"It was tight scoring in the second set. Each of us served away to take points," Angelique said on her website.

"During the tiebreaker, we were leading 5-2 when concentration deserted us and we lost. What a miss," she said.

Tension between the two pairs continued to mount in the third set. Angelique/Fernandez trailed 2-3 in the first five games but they caught up and did not look back during the final cruise to victory.

"We were down 1-3. They could have gone four games to one, but fortunately we could hold on. We came back to scrape through," she said.

Angie, as she is more popularly known, will take on Deja Bedanova, seeded fourth at the tournament, in the opening round of her singles contention on Monday.

"I will face Bedanova in the fourth game of the day tomorrow. My game will not start before 4:30 (local time). I have met her before in a junior match and I was completely outscored," Angie said.

"It's OK. I'll try my best this time around," she said.

In Sunday's singles matches, Stephanie Foretz of France and Francesca Schiavone of Italy advanced to the second round after winning their respective matches.

Foretz trounced Jelena Kostanic of Croatia 6-1, 6-1 and Schiavone beat Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia 6-4, 6-4, according to reports from AFP.

Other players winning their opening matches were Tatiana Garbin of Italy, Laura Granville of the United States and Anca Barna of Germany.