Angie stuns spectators with defeat of Kournikova

Jim Slater, Agence France-Presse, New York

Rising Indonesian tennis player Angelique "Angie" Widjaja stunned spectators and tennis observers by defeating Russian Anna Kournikova in the opening round of the U.S. Open here on Monday.

The 17-year-old Angie needed only 44 minutes to oust the 21- year-old Russian beauty 6-3, 6-0, hitting only one winner while being aided by Kournikova's 40 unforced errors in the opening round of the Grand Slam event.

"I felt like I tried everything and just nothing was going my way," Kournikova said. "I was going faster and faster and faster and that was my mistake.

"Very disappointing. I didn't play well at all. I wasn't in the match. It was just a very bad match for me."

The grandstand was packed with spectators, there to watch a woman considered one of the world's most beautiful, worrying less about her skill with a racket and her tendency to try and force shots when she is misfiring.

"I just played totally wrong way. I just played bad," Kournikova said.

"I should have kept the ball more in play. I didn't give her many chances. I made maybe a million mistakes. That was kind of horrible."

Kournikova, who made her WTA Tour debut in 1995, has never won a WTA singles crown. Her best Grand Slam showing was a 1997 Wimbledon semifinal appearance. But the lack of success has not dimmed the poster girl's determination to triumph.

"If I didn't think I could improve, I wouldn't be trying," Kournikova said. "It's not like I play the way I did today all the time. I'm just going to try again. I will just have to do better and work harder next time."

Kournikova said she did not feel she had to defend her failure to win a title in a career that saw her ranked as high as eighth, that coming most recently in May of last year.

"I'm not trying to prove myself to anybody. I try to do what I have to do," said Kournikova. "Today was just a very bad match for me. It's disappointing to have it happen at a Grand Slam."

Kournikova has not reached a WTA final since Moscow in 2000. She reached the semifinals at Auckland in January, Tokyo in February and Acapulco in March, but lost 11 of her next 14 matches through a first-round exit at Wimbledon. But Kournikova bounced back to reach the San Diego semifinals.