Ayu stopped in quarters at women's tennis meet

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ayu Fani Damayanti of Indonesia failed to advance into the semifinals in the second series of the US$10,000 Indonesia Women's Circuit after losing to Thailand's Montinee Tangphong 6- 2, 4-6, 6-1 here on Thursday.

After being dominated in the opening set, Ayu, who hails from Bali, lifted her game in the second set to take control from her opponent.

Ayu outplayed Tangphong early to race to a 3-1 lead. The Thai, refused to sit back and evened the set at four games each. However, Ayu managed to stop Tangphong's march and closed the set with a 6-4 win in 35 minutes.

Unfortunately, fatigue seemed to cause Ayu to fumble in the third set, allowing Tangphong to easily beat the Indonesian in only 25 minutes.

Ayu blamed the debacle in the third set partly on back injuries.

"She played a very good game, and my back also hurt during the third set," she told The Jakarta Post after the match.

Tangphong will face last week's champion and top seed Sania Mirza. The Indian moved a step closer to attaining her back-to- back second title by defeating seventh seed Wilawan Choptang of Thailand 6-1, 6-3.

The other semifinal will be an all-Indonesian tussle with veteran Liza Andriyani taking on the youthful Septi Mende.

Eighth seed Liza, who was a member of the national tennis team at the 2002 Busan Asian Games, crushed another young star, Sandy Gumulya, 6-3, 6-1. Sandy will be on the team for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam in December.

Septi, who is Sandy's teammate, dispatched Wukirasih Sawondari, who earned Indonesia a gold medal by beating Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn in the 1997 SEA Games, 6-2, 6-4.

Teaming up with Maya Rosa, Septi's doubles campaign is still on track. The pair were involved in a tough match against second seeds Wilawan Choptang/Shruti Dhawan, whom they beat in last week's finals, before coming out the 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/5) winners.

Top seed Sania Mirza/Rushmi Chakravarthi of India also marched to the semifinals, breezing past Indonesian qualifiers Mimma Chernovita/Eny Sulistyowati 6-2, 6-1. The other two pairs advancing to the semifinals are fourth seeds Liza Andriyani/Diana Julianto and Sandy Gumulya/Wukirasih Sawondari.