Irawati to meet Liza in Circuit semifinals

JAKARTA (JP): The semifinal of the US$10,000 Indonesia Women's Circuit 4 will be an all-Indonesian affair after the victories on Friday of Liza Andriyani and Irawati Moerid Iskandar at the Danamon Tennis Complex in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

Liza, 19, defeated qualifier Montika Anuchan of Thailand 6-3, 6-4, while Irawati defeated junior Angelique Widjaja 7-5, 6-1.

Liza's superior technical skills and superior physical condition count in her favor against senior player Irawati, a mother of two. But Irawati will be drawing on her long experience in the match.

The winner will meet either Wang I-Ting of Chinese Taipei or Suchanan Viratprasert of Thailand.

Wang took the semifinal berth after she easily upset top seeded Benjamas Sangaram, last week's Circuit winner, 6-1, 6-0. Viratprasert salvaged Thailand's hopes after beating India's Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-3, 6-2.

The Circuit result was better than last week's result in which all national players tumbled in the quarterfinals.

In the doubles, top seeded pair Liza and Sangaram eliminated Indonesia's new duo Novianti Warsono and Agustina Wibisono 6-3, 6-3. They will face Indonesian duo Wukirasih Sawondari and Eny Sulistyowati, who had a touch match against Natalie Ko of Australia and Lan-Lan Tai of Chinese Taipei 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

In another semifinals, new partners Mudarwati and Dea Sumantri had an easy win over Diane Asencio of Switzerland and Susanne Filipp of Austria 6-0, 6-1.

The Indonesians will challenge second seeded pair Chakravarthi and Jayaramsai Jayalakshmy of India. The Indian pair eventually won over Indonesia's Irawati and Angelique 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Mudarwati and Dea reached last week's final but lost to seniors Irawati and Wukirasih. (yan)