Mon, 28 Jan 2002

Angie adds feather to her crown

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's Angelique Widjaya added another Grand Slam title to her Wimbledon achievements of last year with an Australian Open junior women's doubles victory in Melbourne on Sunday.

The 17 year old teamed up with Argentinean Gisella Dulko -- the pair seeded third at the tournament -- to beat top seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia)/Matea Mezak (Croatia) 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in 106 minutes.

Coach Deddy Tedjamukti said that, after winning the first set in 22 minutes, the second set was much tenser for Angie and Dulko, with the Argentinean feeling the pressure.

"She (Dulko) was stuck in the defense. She did not dare move forward," Deddy said in Melbourne as quoted by Antara.

Deddy said that Angie and Dulko seemed preoccupied with the opening set's victory, with the goal of sealing the second set quickly.

Instead the pair lost the set. "But Angie's good playing helped them recoup in the third set. Angie's serves produced many points and they ended up winning the match," he said.

Sunday's victory was Angie's second title in Grand Slam junior tournaments following her singles' triumph at Wimbledon last year.

The win must have been some consolation to Angie, after failing in the second round in her singles campaign and falling early in the qualifying stage in the senior category, in which American Jennifer Capriati was the eventual champion.