Indonesian dominate Women's tennis tourney

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.