JP/6/BALI

RI doubles cruise to quarterfinals

THE JAKARTA POST Nusa Dua, Bali

Indonesian doubles tennis players cruised to the quarterfinals round of the US$170,000 WTA Tour Wismilak International tournament here on Wednesday.

Veteran tennis player Yayuk Basuki made a pair with world number 18 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, while Wynne Prakusye jumped to the next round with Janet Lee of Chinese Taipei. Also having an easy time were Indonesian tennis prodigy Angelique Widjaja who was teamed up with American Tracy Almeda-Singian.

Seeded third here were Yayuk and Sanchez-Vicario, who did not find it difficult to best Australian Annabel and Japanese Haruka Inoue 6-1, 6-2.

The old hands are on their way to meet Maria Diaz-Oliva of Argentina and Marlene Weingartner of Germany, who found strong opposition from host Romana Tedjakusuma and Hsieh Su-Wei before closing with a 7-5, 6-4 victory.

The winner of this second round match will face the winners of a match between Wynne and Lee against the Australian pair of Alicia Molik and Nicole Pratt.

Unlike the veterans, second seeds Wynne and Lee were forced to play in three sets against Japanese Shinobu Asagoe and Tina Pisnik of Slovenia. Although they won the first set 6-4, Wynne and Lee lost the second set 6-7 (2-8). They did manage to bounce back and grab the third set with a 6-2 victory.

Meanwhile, the Australians had an easy 6-2, 6-2 victory over Chinese pair of Liu Nan Nan and Yi Jing-Qian.

In the upper leg, Angelique, better known as Angie, and Almeda-Sangian kept a 4-0 lead in the first set when their opponents, Rossana de Los Rios of Paraguay and Joannette Kruger of South Africa, retired from the match after Kruger suffered heat stroke.

Angie and Almeda-Sangian will then see Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi and American Tu Meilen who fought hard before downing fourth seeds Liezel Huber of South Africa and Rachel McQuillan of Australia.

Gagliardi and Tu lost the first set 6-3 before bouncing back easily in the second set 6-1. The match was getting tighter in the decider before Gagliardi and Tu finished at 7-6 (8-4).

Another quarterfinals match will see Evie Dominikovic of Australia and Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand face Australian Mireille Dittmann and Japanese Keiko Tameishi.

Dominikovic and Tamarine were also engaged in a close match before toppling first seeds Alexandra Fusai of France and Rita Grande of Italy to win with a 6-7 (8-4), 7-5, 6-1 victory.

Meanwhile, Dittmann and Tameishi had an all-out victory over the Korean pair of Cho Yoon-jeong and Jeon Mi-ra.

In the singles events, Tamarine eased her way into the quarterfinals taking just 65 minutes to overcome Fusai 6-3, 6-2.

Pisnik overcame Italy's Roberta Vinci also with the same score of 6-3, 6-2.

There was victory in the cards for fifth-seeded Grande and eighth-seeded Kruger.

Grande beat Yi 6-4, 6-1 and Kruger also reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Dominikovic.

Dominikovic received a warning for hitting a ball out of the stands after going down three set points at the end of the first set, and then calling for attention to her right leg halfway through the second set. (54)