Gumulya bowed out to Zhang in semi-final

Surprise and not surprise to find out the outcome of singles' semi-final between top seed Sandy Gumulya and sixth seed Zhang Ling of Hong Kong at "ASB Pro Circuit", a 10K tourney in North Shore City, New Zealand today. It was a nice revenge by Zhang as she edged past Gumulya 7-5, 6-2 and will have chance to grab her third 10K's title tomorrow. In 2006 at Jakarta 10K, Gumulya defeated Zhang 6-3, 6-1 in their first meeting. "Big Mama" elite camp plan was certainly ruined as its head coach thought it could have been easier for her "golden gal" to earn another 10K title here or it was most likely her 7th 10K's title. The heat is still on as the elite entourage will play in two remaining 10Ks in Kiwi land.

The other semi-final battle featured second seed Hwang I-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei and qualifier Kim So-Jung of South Korea. Hwang, 20 years old, is currently at WTA 318 and was playing her 5th 10K's semi-final today as she is in her quest to return to her best rank of WTA 266. Hwang's best result was at Taipei 100K last year when she finished in the second round. Once she experienced to play Aussie Open Grand Slam qualifying round in 2008 and she ended-up in the second round or Q2. Hwang proved as better player than two years older Kim and won easily 6-3, 6-0. Hwang will try to get her maiden 10K title tomorrow as her best outcome in 10K was only runner-up in Balikpapan 2005 and Tokyo 2008.

Meanwhile Kim, 22 years old, is now ranked at WTA 883 but in fact her highest rank was at WTA 282 in 2006. Today she emulated what she did as semi-finalist at Gimhae 10K in her own country last year. It was indeed an impressive run by Kim as qualifier and got into semi-final.