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.