Wukirasih plays Tamarine in women's tennis final
Wukirasih plays Tamarine in women's tennis final
By Primastuti Handayani
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Wynne Prakusya failed in her quest to
upset Thailand's Tamarine Tanusagarn yesterday, but it will still
be a Thailand-Indonesia matchup in today's final.
Wynne's compatriot Wukirasih Sawondari reserved herself a
final berth by beating Khoo Chin Bee of Malaysia 6-2, 6-4.
Wynne gave credit to her top seeded opponent after the 2-6, 3-
6 loss. "Tamarine played much better than on Tuesday. I just
couldn't hit the ball right. I tried my best but she's still
better."
Wynne took the first two games but Tamarine swept the next six
for the set.
Trailing 2-5 in the second, Wynne broke Tamarine's serve but
could not hold her own in the next game despite four deuces.
"I rushed myself to win because I was a little bit obsessed to
beat her like Liza did," Wynne said.
Liza Andriyani upset Tamarine in the team event final Monday,
enabling Indonesia to win the gold.
The first set of the Wukirasih-Khoo match was almost identical
to Wynne's match.
Khoo lead 2-0 but did not win another game as the Indonesian
won the set.
The second set went on serve until Wukirasih broke Khoo to
lead 5-3.
The Malaysian was not about to give up without a fight as she
stole serve for 4-5. But some nervy play and a double fault
handed Wukirasih the final place.
"I'll try my best against Tamarine tomorrow," Wukirasih said
after her match yesterday. "I don't have any pressure but I think
I'll try to rally to exhaust her."
In the men's singles, second seeded Suwandi of Indonesia beat
Selvam Veerasingam of Malaysia 7-5, 6-2 to meet fourth seeded
Joseph Lizardo of the Philippines in today's semifinals.
In the other semifinal, top seeded Andrian Raturandang of
Indonesia will face third seeded Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand.
Hopes of an all-Indonesia final in the women's doubles were
dashed after Irawati Moerid Iskandar/Wukirasih lost in straight
sets to Tamarine/Benjamas Sangaram 3-6, 3-6.
The top seeded Thai pair face Indonesia's second seeded
Liza/Wynne in today's final.