Van Roost, Nemeckova to fight for Wismilak title

Van Roost, Nemeckova to fight for Wismilak title

SURABAYA (JP): Top seeded Dominique van Roost reached her
appointed place in the final of the 1997 Wismilak International
women's tennis tournament by beating Australia's Rachel McQuillan
in straight sets here yesterday.

The Belgian defeated McQuillan 6-2, 7-5, to set up a final
showdown today with Lenka Nemeckova of the Czech Republic. She
beat Maria Alejandra Vento of Venezuela 6-4, 6-3 at the Embong
Sawo tennis complex.

In the doubles event, Canadians Maureen Drake/Renata Kolbovic
struggled to overcome Khoo Chin Bee of Malaysia/Yoriko Yamagishi
of Japan 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the first semifinal.

They will play the winner of Nathalie Dechy/Sara Pitkowski of
France versus Kerry-Anne Guse of Australia/Rika Hiraki of Japan.

The finals will be broadcast live by SCTV at 2:30 p.m.

Van Roost, world ranked 28, romped through the first set in 35
minutes. The Australian's resistance was limited to the first two
games.

But 24-year-old Van Roost had to dig deep within herself in
the second set as McQuillan discarded her usual baseline game and
attacked.

McQuillan scraped back from a 2-4 deficit to level at 4-4.
Both players held serve for 5-5. Van Roost then broke serve and
held her own at love to take the match.

"In the first set, McQuillan made many unforced errors but in
the second set she hit well on vital points," van Roost said
after the match. "She fought harder and played more offensively
than in the first set. It was very difficult."

Van Roost said her serve had faltered. "I had problems with my
serve, especially when I got very nervous and the wind was
getting worse. Then my serves became very bad."

"In the end, I was just trying to concentrate on my serve, not
the match," she said.

McQuillan said the weather had been a factor: "Today was very
hot and the wind was swirling. But I was getting better in the
end and I thought I could go ahead 6-5. But she hit off the
ground very well and she won the game."

Earlier, Nemeckova had beaten Vento in front of 600 spectators
who rooted in vain for the attractive Venezuelan.

Vento took an early lead of 3-1 but the Czech broke back and
held serve to draw even. Vento, 23, went ahead 4-3 but then lost
three consecutive games and the set.

She committed many unforced errors in the second set to trail
2-5. Vento kept her hopes alive by breaking Nemeckova's serve but
then failed to hold her own to lose the match.

"I was playing good from the baseline but Vento didn't miss
anything. I really had to win points to win the game," Nemeckova
said.

"I didn't really expect to go to the final but when I went
through to the semifinals, I just thought about the next match."

Nemeckova, who lost to van Roost three years ago in a
US$50,000 tournament in Southampton, England, said she would
"just do my best" in today's final.

Van Roost said: "I would have rather played against Vento
because I had watched her playing. Today she didn't play well.I
hope I can win tomorrow."

The tournament, which is being held in conjunction with the
centennial anniversary of the venue, provides US$31,860 to the
champion and $15,030 to the runner-up. (nur/yan)