Angie clears first hurdle at Wismilak tournament
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.