Ayu fails in the first hurdle at Wismilak tennis tourney

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post/Nusa Dua, Bali

Ayu Fani Damayanti of Indonesia failed to overcome her first hurdle at the Wismilak International Tennis Tournament, after she lost 6-3, 6-1 to world's 39th-ranked Gisela Dulko of Argentina in the first round of the tournament at the Grand Hyatt tennis courts, here on Monday.

The Bali-born tennis player -- who qualified for the main draw of the US$225,000 tournament after collecting points from the preceding tournaments in Pattaya, Thailand, and Surabaya -- said that he had been nervous entering the court against Dulko.

She said her hands had been sweating as she was about to serve.

"I was nervous. When serving, my hands felt cold. I was overwhelmed by nerve," she said, after the match.

She said she had tried hard to calm down, and played as best as she could.

"But I just could not cope with Gisela's hard serves and her play was consistent. Meanwhile, I fell to a string of errors," she said.

Despite what she said about her frame of mind, Ayu managed to pull ahead early, leading 2-0, thanks to her strong forehand.

But Ayu failed to maintain the pace. In the rest of the game, she made numerous errors, notably resulting in double faults.

Trailing early on, Dulko promptly picked up her game with her volley and hard serves.

"I have to admit that her serves were good. Her smashes were strong," Ayu said.

She said she learnt a lot from the game, which lasted only 56 minutes.

Ayu will be back on court when she teams up with Septi Mende in the doubles.

In the other matches, Saori Obata of Japan, who is ranked 56th in the world, went down to World's No. 46 Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico 6-1, 6-2.

Tina Pisnik of Slovakia lost to Maria Elena Camerin of Italy 7-5, 6-2.

Meanwhile, in the qualifying matches, Samantha Stosur of Australia, Marta Domachowska of Poland, Aiko Nakamura of Japan and Mariana Diaz-Oliva of Argentina qualified for the main round after winning their matches on Monday.