Romana steals show at Indonesia Open
Romana steals show at Indonesia Open
JAKARTA (JP): Romana Tedjakusuma gained ground after a year
of poor showing as she stormed to an easy opening round win over
Kim de Weille of the Netherlands at the Indonesia Women's Open
tennis championships yesterday.
Indonesia's number two looked relaxed throughout the one hour of
play, staged at the Senayan indoor tennis stadium, breaking de
Weille's five serves before claiming a 6-2, 6-0 demolition of her
error-prone opponent. It was more than a relief for Romana whose
world ranking has dropped by 50 places from her career high of 90
in 1993.
Romana's victory came as a consolation to the home crowd after
two Indonesians were dumped out of the US$161,000 tournament
earlier in the day.
A powerful de Weille could not keep her cool when her relentless
wide returns cost her two broken serves, allowing Romana to race to
a 4-0 lead. De Weille saved the next two games, but Romana drilled
her blasting serves to seal the opening set.
The second set was a repeat performance, with de Weille, despite
her devastating crosscourts, producing too many unforced errors.
Romana took advantage of her opponent's uncontrolled strokes to go
4-0 ahead.
The next two games were of purely academic interest as a
frustrated de Weille gave no answer to Romana's sharp two-hand
backhand. Romana confirmed her supremacy with two love games to
wrap up the match.
"I simply tried to stay relaxed. I know Kim is a good serve-and-
volleyer although I've never met her," Romana said after the match.
Romana crashed out of the tournament's second round last year at
the hand of Park Sung-hee of South Korea.
The Indonesian will play either Austrian ninth seed Beate
Reinstadler or qualifier Elena Tatarkova of Ukraine in tomorrow's
second round.
Earlier yesterday, two Indonesians who were granted wild card
entry, Natalia Soetrisno and Enny Sulistyowati, ended their dreams
of making further steps at the 64-field tournament.
Natalia was overpowered by Park Sung-hee 1-6, 3-6 in less than an
hour. In the morning program, debutant Enny gave up 2-6, 3-6 to
American Julie Steven.
Laurence Courtois of Belgium and Petra Begerow of Germany became
seeded casualties yesterday. The 15th seed Belgian lost 2-6, 6-7
(4-7) to Maria Starlund of Sweden, while Begerow crashed to a 3-6,
2-6 defeat to Mercedes Paz of Argentina.(amd)