Indonesian dominate Women's tennis tourney

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Three seeded Indians fell early while the Indonesian playing pack bounced back from last week's dismal performance to dominate the first-round matches of the US$10,000 Indonesia Women's Circuit tennis tournament at the Hilton tennis courts here on Tuesday.

Tuesday's matches were the start of the second swing of the Indonesia's satellite-tennis tournament after last week's round, in which Indian Sania Mirza won by beating compatriot Rushmi Chakravarthi in the finals.

However, while Sania continued her winning form, Rushmi, who is the tournament's third seed, lost to Maya Rosa of Indonesia 7- 6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in a closely fought game.

Maya appeared behind throughout, but she somehow managed to steal the decisive points during tiebreaks to scrape to victory.

"I tried not to be preoccupied by her status as last week's runner-up. Therefore I became less nervous," Maya told The Jakarta Post after the game.

Rushmi's exit was followed by second seed Isha Lakhani, sixth seed Sonal Phadke, both also from India, on the day when the home side's players triumphantly cleared their first hurdles.

Lakhani fell victim to Indonesia's favorite Sandy Gumulya 6-3, 3-6, 5-7 while Phadke was overpowered in her 6-2, 6-1 crushing defeat by Montinee Tangphong of Thailand.

Other Indonesians advancing to the second round included Liza Andriyani, Wukirasih Sawondari, Diana Julianto, Eny Sulistiowati, Mimma Chernovita and Septi Mende.

Liza, who is seeded eighth, beat Thassha Vitayaviroj of Thailand 6-2, 6-3.

Wukirasih and Diana went through at the expense of Thai opponents, the former upsetting Varanya Vijuksanaboon 6-3, 6-1 and the latter overpowering Orawan Lamangthong 6-2, 6-3.

Eny and Mimma, who had to get through the qualifying stage, took their wins over Indians 7-6, 6-4 and 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 respectively over Indians Liza Pereira, ranked 619 in the world, and 717-ranked Samrita Sekar.

Septi conceded three games in her 6-0, 6-3 domination of fellow Indonesian Marieke Gunawan.

Mirza's win over Chinese Yuan Meng means that she is one of the only two Indians remaining in the tournament. The other is Shruti Dhawan, who beat Chattida Thimjapo of Thailand 6-1, 6-2.

Mirza fought her way through after putting in extra effort to defeat a persistent Yuan Meng 7-6 (11/9), 6-2.

Fourth seed Wang I-Ting of China Taipei dispatched Naoko Horikawa of Japan 6-2, 6-4 and seventh seed Wilawan Choptang of Thailand crushed Indonesian Febri Joana 6-0, 6-2,

Meanwhile, Indonesian tennis star Angelique "Angie" Widjaja defeated Claudine Schaul of Luxembourg 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 7-6(7/5) in the first round of the US$140,000 Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan on Tuesday, Angie's manager Virginia Rusli reported.

Ranked 77th in the WTA Tour, Angie put behind her opening round exit at the Japan Open to beat 75-ranked Schaul in two and a half hours.