RI's rising star reserves appointment with Dokic

Tokyo (Agence France-Presse): Indonesia's rising tennis star Angelique "Angie" Widjaja won her first Pan Pacific Open match on Wednesday, taking out South Korean qualifier Jeon Mi-Ra to book a second-round appointment with Yugoslavian Jelena Dokic.

Angie beat Jeon 6-3, 6-3 in one hour.

"Of course, I'm happy, because this is a big tournament and this is my first time in this tournament, so it's good for me," said Angie, 18, who caused a sensation by winning her debut. WTA event at Bali two years ago.

"Before, I have to play a qualifying tournament, but I got a wild card here, so thank you for the wild card. It's good for me, because it's a big tournament and you can get a lot of points here also."

Angie lost the opening game with a double fault at 30-40, but she steadied herself to break back in the fourth for two-all before taking six straight games.

Jeon, ranked 141st against Angie's 68th, fired a sizzling service return winner at a triple break chance to trail 1-3 in the second set and then staved off one match point in the seventh game to claw back to 3-5.

But Angie hit an array of lightning shots, forcing Jeon into three errors to take a commanding triple match point in the following game. She finished off her opponent with an easy forehand winner at the net.

Angle, junior champion at Wimbledon 2001 and at the French Open in 2002, became the youngest player to win a WTA title in Bali at 16 years, eight months and 18 days. She was the sixth player to win her debut Tour event.

She posted her second title at Pattaya in November and hopes to improve her ranking this season.

"I hope I can win a tournament again this year, but my goal for this year is to reach top 50 in the WTA," said Angie, whose career best was 59th in September last season.

But before that, Angie has to beat Dokic on Thursday, who will play her season-opener after skipping tournaments in Australia.

Meanwhile, top seed Monica Seles squandered four match points in the second set but recovered to beat Japanese ace Ai Sugiyama 7-5, 5-7, 6-1 and book a place in the quarterfinals.

Fourth seed Chanda Rubin of the United States, who received a first round bye along with Seles, second seed Jelena Dokic and third seed Lindsay Davenport of the United States, also reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.

In first-round action Wednesday, Elena Bovina of Russia upset seventh seed Anna Pistolesi of Israel 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, while Iva Majoli of Croatia defeated American Alexandra Stevenson 6-3, 6-3 and Lisa Raymond downed Paola Suarez of Argentina 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

In Milan, Italy, number four seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium booked his place in the second round of the men's indoor ATP event here Tuesday with a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 win over Brazil's Andre Sa.

Temperamental Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a double Grand Slam champion having lifted the French Open at Roland Garros in 1996 and the Australian Open in 1999, claimed his place in the second round with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Marcelo Charpentier of Argentina.

Richard Krajicek, Wimbledon champion in 1996, shrugged off. Russia's Nikolay Davydenko to win his first round match with ease.

Krajicek won 7-5, 6-2 as the Dutchman's powerful serves eventually wore down the promising 21-year-old.