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)