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.