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.