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.