Angie clears first hurdle at Wismilak

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Angelique 'Angie' Widjaja lived up to Indonesian tennis fans expectations when she beat Dinara Safina of Russia in their opening match at the US$225,000 Wismilak International WTA tennis tournament in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Wednesday.

Angie, who beat the same player to win the 2001 Junior Wimbledon trophy, ran out a 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-5 winner in a energy-sapping three-set battle, Antara reported.

In the second round, the Bandung-born player will meet Italian Tathiana Garbin, who upset Jelena Dokic, the fourth seed from Yugoslavia, on Tuesday.

Other players winning their opening matches on Wednesday included 2002 runner-up Conchita Martinez of Spain and Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela.

Martinez defeated fellow Spaniard Arantxa Parra 6-1, 7-6 (5/0) while Vento-Kabchi stopped Rossana Neffa de Los Rios of Paraguay 6-4, 6-4.

Meanwhile, second seed Elena Dementieva and Anca Barna were the players who already sealed their quarterfinal places after winning their second round matches.

Dementieva of Russia faced little difficulty in overcoming Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-4, 6-1 while Barna, who dashed Wynne Prakusya's hopes earlier, took her second Asian victim, beating Cho Yoon-jeong of South Korea 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

A tournament official told The Jakarta Post that the match was delayed for almost two hours due to rain. After completing the first two sets, rain fell and the players resumed play at 8:35 p.m. local time.

The match was close from the start with the two players taking turns leading. It was Angie who broke first before Safina leveled at 2-2.

The Russian opponent broke Angie's serve to take a two game lead only to be caught up by Angie, currently ranked 68 in the Women's Tennis Tour (WTA). Safina is 71st.

The players evened again at 5-5 and 6-6 after which Angie held on to win the tiebreak.

Angie took the opening two games in the second set, but that's all she could do as Safina clawed her way back to take charge of the game 5-2.

After allowing Angie another two games, Safina closed the set to force the third-set decider.

While Angie registered her success in the opening match, Indonesia's other contenders Liza Andriyani and Maya Rosa, both teaming up in the doubles, tumbled out at the first hurdle.

Liza/Maya went down to Trudi Musgrave/Abigail Spears (Australia/U.S.) 1-6, 1-6 to follow out Yayuk Basuki/Diana Julianto on the previous day.