Taipei's Wang to meet Yayuk in Indonesia Open
JAKARTA (JP): Top seed Wang Shi-ting of Chinese Taipei rallied to win the first set over Linda Niemansverdriet of the Netherlands yesterday, which proved to be enough to give the Taiwanese a third round berth at the Indonesia Open.
Niemansverdriet lost the opening set 6-7 (0-7) and trailed 1-3 in the second when she resigned because of a hamstring injury. She fell to the same opponent in the 1991 junior French Open.
Wang is now only one match away from a third meeting in the budding rivalry with home favorite Yayuk Basuki. Wang is 2-0 against Yayuk. They are highly expected to meet in Saturday's semifinals.
The baseliner Wang was in trouble against her Dutch opponent, who used a hard serve and strong volley to upset Yayuk in the first round of the Japan Open early this month. Niemansverdriet earned a service break in the third game, following a successful approach to the net for an unbeatable volley.
The Dutch girl defied the gap in world rankings between her and the world number 34 when she blasted an ace to take a 3-1 lead and set the pace.
The eighth game saw Wang force a catalog of rallies which was the proper remedy for Niemansverdriet's serve and volley. Niemansverdriet produced two successful approaches but double faulted twice to allow a break point. A widely floating forehand cost the lanky Dutch player her first service break and helped Wang level the tie at 4-4.
Niemansverdriet maintained her heroic performance to save her own serve, before the battle went into a tie-break. The world number 185, however, could not match Wang's grit in the deciding rallies. The Taiwanese hit all corners to blank her opponent, who committed two double faults during the tie-break.
The Dutch lucky loser, who entered the second set with a bandaged thigh, dropped another game to trail 0-2 before she fought tooth and nail to save her serve. Wang kept up the pressure to end Niemansverdriet's 65-minute struggle.
"Today I played better than in my first round match," Wang said. Wang will play either lucky loser Nana Miyagi of Japan or Rennae Stubbs of Australia tomorrow.
Arendt advances
Eighth seed Nicole Arendt of the United States moved closer to another encounter in the quarters with Yayuk as she outplayed South Africa's Tessa Price 6-4, 6-2 yesterday.
Arendt, 114 in the world, registered two breaks and struck one in the first set. She added two more breaks to go 5-1 up in the second before wrapping up the match in one hour and 10 minutes.
Arendt tamed Yayuk in the rubber-set in their first round match at the Pattaya Open in Thailand two weeks ago.
South Korean Park Sung-hee's hopes of running farther were dashed at the hands of another South African, Dinky van Rensburg. Park dominated the early battle with a 3-0 lead, only to crash to a 6-7 (3-7), 2-6 defeat.
Van Rensburg made up for her numerous unforced errors in the first set to sail unchallenged throughout the second. She snatched the last three games, including a break, to secure a quarterfinals slot. The South African now meets Argentinean second seed Florencia Labat who beat Nancy Feber of Belgium 6-3, 6-4. (amd)