Mirza denies second chance

Mirza denies second chance

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The march of top seed Sania Mirza from India was finally
halted after Thailand's Montinee Tangphong knocked her out with a
2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win in the semifinals of the Indonesia Women's
Circuit at the Hilton tennis courts on Friday.

A dominant run in the opening set did not help Mirza, who won
the first series of the US$10,000 tournament last week, in her
hunt for the second title.

The Wimbledon junior doubles champion was humbled by
Tangphong's consistent play in the rest of the matches.

In the final, Tangphong, two years older than Mirza, will meet
eighth seed, Indonesia's Liza Andriyani, who upset compatriot
Septi Mende 6-3, 6-1 in the other semifinal.

Liza, a member of the national team for the 2002 Busan Asian
Games, started convincingly and took an early 3-0 lead, but Septi
managed to close the gap to 3-3.

However, it was all Septi could get as her 24-year-old
opponent showed her experience to exploit Septi's poor response
to Liza's returns.

The second set was no better for Septi, as she kept committing
recurrent unforced errors while low balls from Liza left her
standing.

Septi, who along with Sandy Gumulya and Maya Rosa will be in
the team for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, only
managed to take another game before finally succumbing.

It proved a double blow for Sandy as she later had to abandon
her hopes for the doubles event. Teaming up with Maya Rosa, she
was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Liza/Diana Julianto.

Liza/Diana will meet Sandy/Wukirasih Sawondari, the 4-6, 6-3,
6-4 winners over Rushmi Chakravarthi/Sania Mirza, in an all-
Indonesia final.

Liza said that she was basically on a par with her juniors,
except that they would need to sharpen their mental agility.

"The girls (in the SEAG team) are good in term of skills, but
they need to keep their wits about them," she told reporters
after the match.

Liza holds the upper hand going into Saturday's final as the
Indonesian defeated her Thai opponent in their last meeting in
Thailand in August.

"I played Tangphong in a satellite tournament in Thailand in
August. I beat her 6-1, 6-3. We'll see what happens tomorrow,"
she said.