Angie clears first hurdle at Wismilak tournament

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Nusa Dua, Bali

Angelique "Angie" Widjaja of Indonesia stunned eighth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro into a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 defeat in the opening round of the Wismilak International Tennis Tournament here on Wednesday.

Wednesday's matches saw more shock exits with third seed Ai Sugiyama of Japan and fifth seed Chanda Rubin of the United States losing to her unheralded opponents.

Sugiyama lost 6-4, 7-6 to compatriot and debutant Aiko Nakamura.

Rubin, who lost to Elena Dementieva in last year's final, went down to Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-4.

Meanwhile, unseeded Cho Yoon-jeong of South Korea continued her winning run with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over Puerto Rico's Kristina Brandi. Earlier, she beat sixth seed Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela.

Argentina's Gisela Dulko also booked a place in the next round after she overpowered Italy's Flavia Penetta 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Angie, the world No. 144, showed remarkable composure to come from a set down to overcome No. 36 Jankovic with a strong backhand game earning a lot of points for the Indonesian star.

"I should have wrapped it earlier in two sets. I lost my concentration and kept making unforced errors," Angie said after the match

"In the first round, I tried to figure out the perfect strategy to win the game but it turned out that all my hits missed. I changed strategy in the remaining games by pounding shots short behind the net. It worked," she said.

In the next round, Angie will play Germany's Anca Barna whom she defeated during the Fed Cup in Jakarta last year.

"Anca is typically a battler. She will go everywhere to make a return. I'll have to play smart against her," Angie said.

Another German player, Marlene Weingartner, who defeated Marta Domachowska of Poland 6-3, 6-4 in the first round, will be challenged by Nakamura.

"I am very happy that I won the game in my first WTA tournament, especially since it was Sugiyama whom I beat because she's the No. 1 player in Japan," Nakamura said about her victory over Sugiyama.

"I tried not to be nervous. I just had to give my best," she said.

Sugiyama was disappointed with the loss. "I don't know what happened today and what caused me to play really poorly," she said.

"I think she's getting better and my performance was really pathetic. I had an extra day (off) after the U.S. Open so I should have performed well," she said.

In her match, Rubin also looked fatigued and was not able execute good returns to Garbin's powerful backhand shots.

"I was very slow and made too many errors. She played better than I did," Rubin said.

In the doubles matches, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain went through to the quarterfinals after winning 6-4, 6-3 over Marta Domachowska of Poland and Galina Voskoboeva of Russia.

Unlike Angie, the Indonesian pairing of Ayu Fani Damayanti and Sandy Gumulya failed to clear their first hurdle, going down 7-5, 6-4 to Casey Dellacqua and Nicole Sewell of Australia.