Top-seeded Indians advance in RI tourney
Top-seeded Indians advance in RI tourney
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Sania Mirza of India led most of the top seeds through to the
second round with an easy win over Thailand's Varanya
Vijuksanabon in the US$10,000 Indonesia Women's Circuit tennis
tournament here on Wednesday.
The 16-year old number one seed Mirza, who won the 2003 Junior
Wimbledon girls doubles crown with Russia's Alisa Kleybanova,
thumped Vijuksanabon 6-1, 6-1 at the Hilton tennis courts in
Central Jakarta.
Her compatriots, second seed Rushmi Chakravarthi, third seed
Isha Lakhani and sixth seed Sonal Phadke also advanced with easy
wins on Wednesday.
Chakravarthi breezed past Indonesia's Mia Sacca 6-2, 6-1,
Lakhani outclassed Thailand's Pichittra Thongdach 6-3, 6-3 on
Wednesday, while Phadke dispatched Indonesian Maya Rosa 0-6, 7-5,
7-6 (7/1) on Tuesday.
However, fifth seed Liza Pereira of India failed to advance,
falling victim to Thassha Vitayaroj of Thailand 6-4, 7-5, 6-7
(4/7), while seventh seed Naoko Horikawa of Japan went down to
Nadine Hassinger of Germany 3-6, 2-6.
Pareira and Horikawa followed the exit other seeded players
Wang I-Ting of Chinese Taipei and Indonesia's Liza Andriyani, who
lost to Diana Julianto of Indonesia and Yuan Meng of China
respectively on Tuesday.
In the second round matches, Mirza will meet Indonesia's
Novianti Warsono, a 6-2, 7-5 winner over Indian Samrita Sekar 6-
2, 7-5.
Phadke will be challenged by Septi Mende, who was extended to
three sets before overcoming fellow Indonesian Denise Harjanto.
The Septi-Denise game took center stage earlier in the day,
with Denise surprisingly putting pressure on Septi, a member of
the Indonesian Fed Cup team.
Denise displayed generally strong drives, which largely
decided the first set. However, in the remaining two sets,
Denise's hard shots were countered by Septi's consistent play to
hand the latter a 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 win in almost 150 minutes.
Septi admitted that Denise was a good opponent and she was put
under pressure by Denise's style.
"She played very well. She obviously plays well on hard
courts," Septi told reporters after the game.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Wukirasih Sawondari struggled in the
first set against Ayu-Fani Damayanti before winning 7-6 (7/5), 6-
1.
Wukirasih said that she had not yet fully recovered from
general fatigue after taking part in the Asian Tennis
Championships over the weekend in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she
was defeated in the semifinals.