Home favorite Angie cruises into Bali quarters
Home favorite Angie cruises into Bali quarters
NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Indonesian starlet tennis player
Angelique Widjaya cruised to the quarterfinals while compatriot
Wynne Prakusya slumped at the US$170,000 Wismilak International
tennis tournament here on Thursday.
Angelique, who is better known as Angie, did not have to play
at all as her opponent, Australian Alicia Molik, retired
suffering from flu and dehydration.
Angie will now challenge the second seed, seasoned Tamarine
Tanasugarn of Thailand, who defeated Alexandra Fusai of France
with a 6-2, 6-4 win.
"I will do my best and take the initiative. Tamarine has good
backhand, but I will not let her control the match," Angie told
reporters.
Meanwhile, Angie's coach, Deddy Tedjamukti, also shared the
same opinion while emphasizing that Angie should control her
emotions.
"Anyone who plays against Tamarine has to possess a high level
of patience. Those who are able to control their emotions will
have a greater chance of winning the match," he said.
Angie is the only host representative in the quarterfinals as
Wynne was defeated 6-7 (2-8), 6-2, 3-6 by Japanese Shinobu Asagoe
in a three-set match.
Wynne took the first lead of 3-0 but made too many unforced
errors allowing Asagoe to equalize 3-3 and eventually take the
first set.
Wynne, however, did not find it difficult to win the second
set.
Entering the third set, Wynne suffered a thigh cramp and had
to be massaged to reduce the pain. Despite the agony, she still
produced two aces and took the first lead of 2-0 before Asagoe
equalized 3-3 and sealed the match with a 6-3 victory.
"My injury prevented me from winning the match but I did my
best," Wynne said after the match. "Asagoe played very well today
and she could return all my balls."
Wynne and Asagoe have now met three times with Asagoe winning
all the matches.
Asagoe goes on to face Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei who
upset veteran Rachel McQuillan of Australia with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3
win.
Meanwhile, first seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario cruised to the
quarterfinals defeating Janet Lee of Chinese Taipei 6-1, 6-3.
Sanchez-Vicario will face fifth seed Italian Rita Grande.
The other quarterfinals match will see Tina Pisnik of Slovenia
facing eighth seed Joannette Kruger of South Africa.
In the doubles event, Evie Dominikovic of Australia and
Tamarine cruised to the semifinals having an easy 6-2, 6-1
victory over Mireille Dittmann of Australia and Japanese Keiko
Tameishi.
Dominikovic and Tamarine will now meet Swiss Emmanuelle
Gagliardi and American Tu Meilen who bested Angie and American
Tracy Almeda-Singian 6-2, 6-2.
Old hands Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia and Sanchez-Vicario,
seeded third here, had a walkover win over Mariana Diaz-Olivia of
Argentine and Marlene Weingartner of Germany as Diaz-Olivia fell
sick.
The veterans will be challenged by second seeded youngsters
Lee and Wynee who had another walkover win against the Australian
pair of Molik and Nicole Pratt.
The tennis players were not only concentrating on their
matches but also shared some of their knowledge with the ball
boys and ball girls at a tennis clinic.
In the first session, Grande and Almeda-Singian showed the
correct way to send forehand and backhand shots as well as
displaying their ball accuracy. Meanwhile, Yayuk and Tamarine
showed how to volley during the second session. (54)