S. Korean Park upsets top seeded in Women's Challenger tourney
S. Korean Park upsets top seeded in Women's Challenger tourney
JAKARTA (JP): Japan's Yone Kamio swallowed another bitter pill
at the US$50,000 Women's Challenger tennis championships when she
crashed to South Korea's Park Sung-hee in their quarterfinal
match yesterday.
Playing on the slow clay court at the Senayan tennis complex,
top seeded Kamio lost 3-6, 3-6 to her unseeded rival. Kamio was
denied a semifinal berth last year when she lost to the eventual
champion Teresa Price of South Africa.
World number 86, Kamio's powerful strokes could not capitalize
on Park's smart energy-saving play, with the South Korean racking
up most of her points from unforced errors committed by the
Japanese.
Park, rated number 149 in the world, now plays fourth seed
Elena Wagner of Germany, the only seeded player to survive the
week-long tournament, in today's semifinals. Wagner toyed with
Australia's Catherine Barclay before wrapping up a 6-3, 6-0
victory.
Another seeded player casualty yesterday was Tina Krizan of
Slovakia. The third seed slipped her way to a 3-6, 5-7 loss to
Japan's fired-up Hiromi Nagano in a hard-fought battle. Nagano
takes on Ludmila Varmuzova of the Czech Republic, who ended
Austria's Andrea Tunko's brilliant run with a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
The doubles competition runs as expected when top seeds
Barclay and her fellow Australian Kerry-Anne Guse lock horns
against number two Kamio and compatriot Naoko Kijimuta.
The Australian duo secured their final berth after disposing
of Japan's Nagano and Yuka Tanaka 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) yesterday. The
combination of Kamio and Kijimuta also had a tough second set
before taming Park and her Indonesian partner Romana Tedjakusuma
6-1, 7-6 (7-1).
Many participants of the tournament will fly to Surabaya, East
Java for a more lucrative event in a week's time. Romana, Park
and Wagner will join Indonesia's world number 25 Yayuk Basuki,
Taiwan's Wang Shi-ting, Australia's Kristin Radford, Japan's Nana
Miyagi and China's number one Li Fang in the $100,000 Wismilak
Open on Nov. 7-13.
The organizers confirmed yesterday Indonesia's number one
Yayuk will join the tournament, held for the first time at Embong
Sawo tennis court in the capital of East Java. Yayuk's highest
ranking at the tourney will earn her the first seed.
Yayuk is set to travel to the U.S. shortly after the week-long
program. (amd)