Two matches down, RI faces tough task
Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia is two matches down after the opening day of the Fed Cup play-off against Germany on Saturday, and now faces the difficult task of turning around the tables on Sunday.
Angelique 'Angie' Widjaja and Wynne Prakusya took to the court brimming with confidence, only to end the day in disappointment, on the losing side, with 4,000 home fans watching from inside the Senayan tennis stadium.
Both Indonesian stars -- whose preference of court has brought about a facelift to the stadium's surface, from a claycourt to hardcourt -- failed to hang on against the Germans.
Wynne (120th in WTA rankings) lost 6-4, 0-6, 4-6 to Anca Barna (62) and Angie (70) went down at 4-6, 1-6 to Barbara Rittner (89).
Germany's non-playing captain, Klaus Eberhard, applauded the team's performance saying that his proteges had played tremendous games.
While giving compliments to the Indonesian players, Eberhard was positive about going into the second day of competition on Sunday.
"Both Wynne and Angie played well, but my players were just a bit better today. This should give us confidence tomorrow," he said.
Another two singles will be played in the reverse order, with Angie and Barna playing in the first, followed by the Wynne- Rittner game. Angie will then team up with Wynne to face Vanessa Henke (218) and Angelika Roesch (107) in the doubles to end the day.
On Saturday, Wynne had a good start in the afternoon match-up giving home crowds hope with a first set win of 6-4 over Barna.
However, the Indonesian was then blanked 0-6 in the second set.
Barna continued her mounting attack with the second set running 3-0. After allowing Wynne to break in the fourth game, the German pulled back to enjoy a comfortable 5-1 lead.
Wynne fought back and reduced the deficit to make 4-5, only to let Barna cruise through to victory.
The home fans turned their expectations to Angie but she failed to come up to scratch with a below-par performance against Rittner in the one-hour match.
Rittner appeared too strong for Angie. The German displayed an almost flawless game throughout while the 18-year-old Indonesian stumbled in a flurry of errors.
Angie admitted that she had sometimes been hasty during the game, overwhelmed by the ambition to give the team a point after Wynne fell in the first effort.
"I felt so impatient (to win a point) that I made so many errors," she said.
She tried to remain optimistic and said: "We still have tomorrow. I will try to be more relaxed and make the best of it."