Top seeds Maya, Denise crumble at Thamrin Cup
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta
Maya Rosa and Denise Harijanto became the latest major casualties at the Thamrin Cup international junior tennis tournament after they went down the second round here on Thursday.
Top seed Maya had her dream of winning shattered, falling to an upset defeat to fellow Indonesian Patricia Soesilo, 6-1, 7-5.
In a bad day for the host players, Denise Harijanto, who was seeded third in the tournament, lost to Japanese qualifier Mika Kawai 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.
They followed second seed Febri Joana, fourth seed Lavinia Tananta, and eighth seed Dian Mayasari, who exited the tournament in earlier rounds.
Another Indonesian who was defeated on Thursday was Dede Tari, who lost to sixth seed Tinusa Sivaganam 6-1, 6-2. Tinusa, of Malaysia, is the only seeded player to remain in contention.
Earlier in the day, Maya played aggressively against Patricia, but the top seed made too many unforced errors, which resulted in her being the easy prey for her opponent.
Maya changed her tactics in the second set by playing more defensively, counting on long balls from the baseline against Patricia.
Maya's changed tactics worked initially when she took a 2-0 lead. But Patricia regained her composure with her accurate ball placement and deadly backhand to fight back.
With the threat of being knocked out looming, Maya upped her game to break Patricia's serve to level at 4-4 and lead 5-4 with serve.
She had a chance to win the set and force a third set. But, while leading 30-0, Maya slipped up and allowed Patricia to even the score.
Afterward, Patricia was simply unstoppable as she made several clinical ball placements to break Maya's serve to complete her victory.
Maya said she was really disappointed with her performance.
"When I played aggressively, I made so many mistakes. I changed and played defensively, but it did not work either," Maya said.
"Icha (Patricia) played really well today. She always seemed to get to the ball," she added.
Patricia said she was also surprised.
"I just played a simple game of tennis. I tried not to lose the match and wanted to get at least one point, but the result was far beyond my expectations...I won it!" she said.
In the boys singles, top seed Elbert Sie of Indonesia advanced to the quarterfinals, although he had to work hard before stopping Lin Yu-Chun of Chinese Taipei, 7-5, 6-4.
"I was not concentrating well today. Luckily, I could read my opponent's weaknesses, so I could handle the match although it was not very easy," he told the Jakarta Post.
Japanese second seed Kento Takeuchi was also through to the quarterfinals after beating Indonesian Faisal Aidil 6-3, 6-3.
In the quarters, Elbert will meet Japanese 10th seed Sho Aida who beat seventh seeded Australian Stefan Sorani 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
Takeuchi will face a challenge from fifth seed Peerachat Chaipayan of Thailand who thrashed Indonesia's ninth seeded Chris Mayanto 6-4, 6-2.
The other quarterfinal pairing will be fourth seed Rio Sekiguchi of Japan against Shu Yi-Che of Chinese Taipei, and Huang Chin-Yu of Chinese Taipei against unseeded Australian Nick Lindahl.