RI's Wynne falls at first hurdle in women's tennis

By Primastuti Handayani

BANGKOK (JP): Indonesia's second best woman tennis player Wynne Prakusya made an early exit in the individual singles competition at the 13th Asian Games on Saturday.

Wynne fell to a 1-6, 5-7 defeat against China's Yi Jing-qian in the first round at the Muang Thong Thani sports complex. It was 17-year-old Wynne's second straight loss to Yi. The first came in the women's team semifinals on Thursday.

The Indonesian doubles team of Irawati Moerid Iskandar and Liza Andriyani were another first-round casualty, losing 1-6, 2-6 to the second seeded pair of Janet Whids Lee and Wang Shi-ting of Chinese Taipei.

However, Wynne managed to advance in the doubles event. Her partnership with Yayuk Basuki proved too strong for the Uzbekistan team of Likiya Bitkyakova and Iroda Tulyaganova, who succumbed 6-3, 6-2.

Wynne and Yayuk, seeded fourth in the tournament, now face the Chinese pair of Chen Li and Li Fang, who beat Montika Anuchan and Wongkamalasai Orawan of Thailand 6-2, 6-4.

If Wynne and Yayuk advance, they are likely to meet top seeds Rika Hiraki and Nana Miyagi in the semifinals.

In the singles, a restless Wynne made too many unforced errors and netted a number of easy forehands to hand the first set to her Chinese rival.

In the second set, Yi led 5-1 but Wynne clawed back to level the score at 5-5. However, error-ridden play once again cost Wynne a crucial game and Yi maintained her cool and served out the match.

"When she was 5-1 up in the second set, I was more relaxed and I managed to equal the score. But at 5-5, I started to play too cautiously because I had to win the set. I was tense and I lost my self control," Wynne said.

"But Yi played very well today, even better than when we met on Thursday. She only made a few errors," she added.

Yayuk's chance

Indonesian team manager Benny Mailili said that with Wynne crashing out, hopes of a tennis gold medal now rested entirely with Yayuk, who is playing in the women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

"Yayuk has said she will focus on the singles event. She has something to prove after losing in the team event," Benny said.

Third seeded Yayuk will meet Tatyana Babina of Kazakhstan on Sunday. If she wins, she will meet either Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan or Haruka Inoue of Japan in the quarterfinals.

Yayuk is then tipped to set up a rematch with second seed and world number 40 Li Fang of China in the semifinals. Li beat Yayuk in the women's team semifinals en route to a Chinese victory over Indonesia.

"The draw has given Yayuk a chance of reaching the semifinals. Her physical fitness is excellent and she is highly motivated, especially after her loss to Li," Benny said.

He said that Yayuk had lost her "touch" after being absent from singles competition for three months.

"She told me that she always felt like there was a friend beside her during the match. She still has to readjust to singles competition, but there's nothing to worry about," he said.

Meanwhile, South Korea humiliated Japan 3-0 in the men's tennis team final, winning its first gold medal in the sport since the 1986 Asiad at home in Seoul.