Article written by Gerhard Grundhammer

Angelique Widjaja Preview

19 year old Angelique Widjaja from Indonesia is Jelenas first opponent in 2003, and as that match is a second round match at a trier I tournament, we have to admit: it could have been not much easier.

Angelique is currently no 68 of the world at the wta-rankings, which makes her the no 1 of her homecountry and the no 5 of Asia. She has won 2 wta-tournaments in her young career, but neither at Bali (2001) or at Pattaya (2002) she had to beat a top 20 player to gain those titles.

In fact, she only had 4 matches vs. players, ranked in the top 20. She lost to Dementieva and Schett in straight sets, and also Smashnova (now Pistolezi) only allowed her two games at the semi-final of Shanghai. But at their first meeting Widjaja scored the biggest win of her live, defeating Anna Smashnova at the opening round of Wimbledon 2002 6-3 and 6-2!

The 1.73 meters tall player seems to be a specialist for opening rounds at Grand Slams anyway, as she also beat Jill Craybas at the French- and some Russian glam girl who is ranked in the thirties at the US-Open :-) Yes, right, Angelique is the girl who defeated Anna Kournikova though she hitted only one single winner at the entire match, 6-3 and 6-0!

Angelique made her first headlines by winning the juniors tournament of Wimbledon in 2001, and improved her game ever since. So she had an average service speed of 88mph (75 on second) at the US-Open, and reached fantastic 98 mph (82 on second) at the Australian Open 2 weeks ago, where she lost to Ay Sugijama. Impressive stats, though she very rarely hits the corners with her serve, and nearly refuses to serve on her opponents forehand with her second service.

Jelena never played the girl from Bandung before, as that is the first game against a top 10 player for Widjaja ever! Asked about her expectations for the match the Indonesian answered:

"I never played against her before. I know she is a good player. This is good for me also because I will have opportunity to play against top player. So I will try my best. Because I dont have pressure also for me, so I will try my best"