Angie, Wynne have tough task early in French Open
Angie, Wynne have tough task early in French Open
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian tennis hopefuls Angelique 'Angie' Widjaja and Wynne
Prakusya are set for an uphill task early on, as both open their
campaign at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris on Monday.
Angie, who is currently ranked 64th, will face world No. 38
Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian of Switzerland in the opening round,
according to AFP.
If she gets by the Swiss woman, the prospect of an early exit
from the Grand Slam tournament looms large with top seed Serena
Williams, who is paired against German Barbara Rittner in the
first round, the most likely opponent for Angie's second match.
Her fellow Indonesian, Wynne, who has had to survive the
qualifying matches to reach a spot in the main draw, will have a
tough match in the opening round against sixth seed Lindsay
Davenport, the 1998 semifinalist.
"This not what you would call an ideal draw," she said as
reported by www.cam.org.
Wynne, the world No. 118, defeated Samantha Stosur, Anne
Keothavong and Renata Veracova in the qualifying stage.
Her 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 win over Veracova was considered a great
improvement over her last two outings in Dubai this year and the
2002 Gifu Challenge.
Angie and Wynne steered Indonesia into the Fed Cup, in which
they will face Germany here in July for a place in the World
Group.
Angie has warmed up ahead her French Open bid making it to the
doubles final, with Italian partner Rita Grande at the Spanish
Open on Saturday. But they lost to Jill Craybas (United
States)/Liezel Huber (South Africa) 4-6, 6-7 (6-8).
According to their trainer Deddy Tedjamukti, Angie and Grande
made an impressive start, leading 3-0 in the opening set but
could not keep the momentum.
"Angie had her serve broken, handing the opponents a crucial
game. Craybas/Huber then took over the match," Deddy said as
quoted by Antara.
The two sides were involved in a tight battle, stretching to
6-6 before Craybas/Huber finished their victory with a tie-break
win.
"Huber played very well and appeared to be the point-scoring
side in her partnership with Craybas," he said.
In the singles, Angie had already crashed out, losing to Cara
Black 0-6, 6-3, 5-7 in the second round.
The French Open will be her third of six tournaments on her
European tour.