Damayanti and Rompies set up all Indonesian semi-final

Seventh seeded Ayu Fani Damayanti and unseeded Jessy Rompies secured their semi-final berth after they were among the quarter-final's winners at the second leg of "PLDT-SMART ITF Women's Circuit" in Manila, Philippines. With total prize money of $ 10,000, Indonesia is guaranteed to have representative in the final since Damayanti and Rompies will play against each other. In the last eight round, Damayanti denied the fighting spirit of French qualifier, Elodie Rogge-Dietrich and posted two weeks in a row of her semi-final appearance. The Balinese girl saw off Rogge-Dietrich 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-final today. Damayanti's next opponent in the last four round will be her compatriot Rompies. In early stage of her transition from junior circuit to senior pro, Rompies created a surprise victory over fourth seeded Yumi Nakano of Japan. In the other quarter-final match today, Rompies simply outclassed experienced Nakano with comfortable 6-1, 6-2 victory.

Damayanti clinched her back to back semi-final and hoped to emulate what she did last week to go all the way to final. Certainly Damayanti will want to end her title drought since May 2006. In her fourth semi-final appearance of her career tomorrow, Rompies did not want to end as three-time semi-finalist of 10K. It will be the first meeting between Damayanti and younger Rompies in senior pro.

Fifth seeded Lavinia Tananta could not extend her seven winning streak as it was stopped by top seeded Sacha Jones of New Zealand. In another match of last eight round, Tananta did everything to gun down Jones but the Kiwi girl played better and tougher than her opponent and won 6-2, 7-6(5). Now Jones leads 3-0 against Tananta.

In doubles, fourth seeded Rompies/Damayanti toppled top seeded Japanese pair, Tomoko Dokei/Tomoko Taira 7-6(1), 6-0 in the semi-final. The Indonesian duo will face qualifier, Juan Ting-Fei/Zhong Yi (Chinese Taipei/China) in the final tomorrow. Juan/Zhong defeated Sacha Jones/Yoshimi Kawasaki (New Zealand/Japan) 6-4, 6-3 in the last four round.

Photo of Sacha Jones is courtesy of tennisnz.com