No Indonesians survive Women's Challenger
No Indonesians survive Women's Challenger
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's upset days at the US$50,000 Women's
Challenger championships here were ended as Natalia Soetrisno
crashed to a 4-6, 3-6 second round defeat to South Korean fifth
seeded Park Sung-hee yesterday.
The plucky Natalia struggled all the way, but found she was
not in the same league as her powerful world number 149 opponent.
Park, who relied much on her long lobs and crosscourt backhand
slices, ended Natalia's run in less than an hour of play.
Natalia, number three in national singles rankings, was the
last Indonesian left at the annual tourney, following the
shocking defeat of second seed Romana Tedjakusuma on Tuesday.
Romana failed to capitalize on the slow surface of the clay
courts of Senayan, going down 6-3, 2-6, 2-6 to unheralded Andrea
Tunko of Austria.
Park is now set up for a quarterfinal encounter with top seed
Yone Kamio of Japan who eased past another Austrian Katharina
Bueche 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 earlier yesterday. Kamio was troubled
against Bueche's tricky passing shots in the opening set. Bueche,
however, failed to maintain her form to match the agile Kamio in
the second.
The other two quarterfinal berths up for grabs yesterday went
to fourth seed Elena Wagner of Germany and Catherine Barclay of
Australia. Both will lock horns in tomorrow's match.
Wagner survived a nail-biting match against Tang Min of Hong
Kong 7-5, 7-6 (9-7). Barclay also found a tough way to securing
her quarterfinal ticket. She dropped the first set before
wrapping up 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Natalia still has a reason to smile as her hopes for a title
in the doubles are still alive. She teamed up with Peters Shannon
of Australia to send Australian fourth seeds Nicole Pratt and
Kirrily Sharpe packing their bags early after a heart-stopping,
error-ridden battle.
The mixed nationality pair squandered a commanding 5-2 lead
and three match points in the deciding set. Shannon then served
for a win, and although Pratt and Sharpe fought back to tie at 5-
5, they eventually lost 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (8-6)
The Pratt and Sharpe loss was the biggest upset side of the
day. They raced to a 6-0 lead in the final tie break, but slipped
up in the end. The Australian pair racked up unforced errors and
Natalia and Shannon produced a superb comeback to clip the
scoreline.
Natalia and Shannon will take on the Japanese duo of Hiromi
Nagano and Yuka Tanaka, who swept Indonesian Liza Andriyani and
Eny Sulistyowati 6-4, 6-2 in another first round match yesterday.
(amd)