Angie, Wynne give Indonesia 2-0 lead against Slovenia in Fed Cup
Angie, Wynne give Indonesia 2-0 lead against Slovenia in Fed Cup
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Tbe Jakarta Poswt, Jakarta
Angelique "Angie" Widjaja and Wynne Prakusya gave Indonesia a 2-0
lead over Slovenia in their World Group playoff in the Fed Cup
women's team tennis championship here on Saturday.
Angie managed to cope with powerful serves from higher-ranked
Katerina Srebotnik to scrape to a 6-4, 6-3 win before Wynne
Prakusya doubled the lead with a convincing 6-1, 6-4 win over
Tina Pisnik.
The hosts will need another win on Sunday to seal their place
in the World Group, as they did in 1991 when, spearheaded by
Yayuk Basuki, they lost to Spain in quarterfinals.
Sunday's matches will see the the two reverse singles matches,
play before Angie and Wynne team up in the doubles.
Indonesia had the chance of joining the 16-nation world elite
last year before it was stopped 2-3 by Germany in the playoff in
Jakarta.
This season, the home team wrapped up Saturday's matches at
the Senayan tennis courts with promising results, moving a step
closer to redeeming last year's disappointing result.
However, Angie did not look so convincing in the early stages
of her game, struggling to deal with Srebotnik's powerful serves.
After tying the first two games, during which both players
exchanged service breaks, 20-year-old Angie, whose world ranking
has significantly dropped from under 100 to 134 this year, found
herself struggling as 23-year-old Srebotnik, ranked 61, pulled to
a 4-1 lead, capitalizing on Angie's poor forehand returns.
However, Srebotnik failed to maintain the pace and let Angie
regroup.
The Indonesian star began to steady her returns and her deep
backhands continued to hit the mark.
Srebotnik staggered with two double faults in the ninth game,
marking a drop-off in her serve.
Angie never looked back. A clinical forehand down Srebotnik's
right side sealed her win.
In the second set, a confident Angie employed good restraint
to hold off a mounted offense from Srebotnik, particularly after
six rounds when her opponent clawed her way back to reduce the
gap from 5-1 to 5-3, during which Angie made two successive
double faults.
But Angie steadied and wrapped the set and the match 6-3 with
Srebotnik falling to two double-faults.
Better ranking also failed to give an edge in the second match
as Wynne, who is ranked 309, outclassed Tina Pisnik, ranked 45,
6-1, 6-4 in an hour and 24 minutes.
Speaking during a post-match press conference, Wynne said the
key to beating Pisnik was that she played patiently from the
baseline and was vigilant against making errors.
"When Angie gave us a 1-0 lead, I tried to convince myself I
had no burden and could continue the streak. It fired me up," she
said.
Sunday's play starts at 10 a.m., with Angie taking on Pisnik
and Wynne, Srebotnik. The two will pair up in the doubles later
in the day.
Indonesian non-playing captain Suzanna Anggarkusuma Wibowo
urged her players to continue their winning form on Sunday.
Despite going down 2-0, Pisnik was optimistic about the team's
prospects, saying she and Srebotnik would try to improve their
games.
"Tomorrow (Sunday), the effort will be 100 percent from both
of us," Srebotnik said.