At the C10 Tarakan in Indonesia, the wildcard entry of Jessica Yang and T. J. Welford won three successive matches – all of them via third set super-tiebreaks – to advance to the final where they eventually fell to the Indonesian pairing of Liza Andriyani and Ayu-Fani Damayanti in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.

Jessica was bidding for her first pro circuit title.

Nevertheless, she will be hoping to pick up some more valuable ranking points when she is due to start in the maindraw singles of this week's C10 Bulungan.

Earlier in the quarterfinals, the Hong Kong-Aussie duo managed to upset No. 1 seeds Chen Yan-Chong and Liang Chen of China, 6-4, 1-6, [10-5], to progress to the semifinals where they again needed a third set super-tiebreak to see off local pair Wukirasih Sawondari and Lavinia Tananta, 4-6, 6-4, [10-4].

Although currently ranked No. 462 in singles, Chen Yan-Chong had held a career-high doubles ranking of No. 157 eighteen months ago.

At the bottom half of the draw, another wildcard entry, Yayuk Basuki and Beatrice Gumulya, almost made it to the semifinal but lost to eventual champions Liza Andriyani and Ayu-Fani Damayanti, in a third set super-tiebreak, 6-0, 4-6, [10-7].

Yayuk Basuki is, of course, a former WTA Touring pro with career-highs of No. 19 in singles (1997) and No. 9 in doubles (1998). She owns six WTA Tour titles in singles in addition to nine in doubles. In addition to qualifying for the year-end Championships for doubles three times, she also boasts career victories in singles over Sabatini, Hingis, Fendick, Shriver, Sukova, Hy, Tauziat, M-J Fernandez, Temesvari, and Huber, to name a few.

En route to reaching the semifinals of the C25 Noida back in March, Basuki and Romana Tedjakusuma managed to beat Ji Chun-Mei and Sun Sheung-Nan (WTA doubles 53) in a third set super-tiebreak.

Elsewhere...

At the C25 Changwon, Zhang Ling was looking for a place in the semifinals of a US$25,000 ITF Women's Circuit event for the second week running, but was denied by China's Xie Yan-Ze (WTA 318) in a wildly fluctuating, 6-7(4), 6-0, 7-6(4), quarterfinal encounter. Apparently, it was so tense an affair that by the end of it, HKTA Elite Coach, Alistair Todd, had managed to chew up all but one of his fingernails.

And so, Alastair Todd reports from Changwon: "In dreadfully windy conditions which weren't conducive to good looking tennis, Lynn managed to work back from an early break to edge ahead 6-5 in the first set before being broken and taken to a breaker. Xie, a remarkably consistent player given her very flat strokes, couldn't quite get her big forehand working too well off Lynn's deeper, heavier shots, with Lynn comfortably winning the opening breaker, 7-4."

He went on, "From that point, the match turned. Xie began to hit EVERYTHING... hitting winners from every part of the court. Despite a few close games, Xie romped away with a love set and then jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the third. By the time Lynn held serve, she was already trailing 4-1."

"Here, the match took its second big swing. The winners dried up on Xie's racquet with Lynn having worked her way back to 4-3 before Xie held to go up 5-3. Lynn then strung together some big shots and broke serve to get back to 5-5. Then leading 40-15 on her own serve, the rally of the match, and what effectively was a match point for Lynn."

"Both girls were running each ragged with some big hitting and solid defensive shots. Lynn finally worked Xie out wide on her backhand side and had a sitter forehand into the open court. But seeing Xie was beginning to recover in the corner of her eye, she overplayed it and it went marginally wide. She then lost the next 3 points and the game to trail 6-5. Although Lynn managed to break right back to force a breaker, Xie managed to pulled out several big forehands again to pull away. Lynn made a couple of easier errors but to her credit kept fighting right up until the final shot," lamented Alastair Todd.

As it turned out, Xie Yan-Ze went on to beat Alexandra Panova of Russia, 6-4, 6-4, to take the title.

However, not all is lost, as Zhang Ling is at a career-high in both singles (No. 367) and doubles (No. 395) as of this week's (May 12) Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings.

Results
US$10,000 ITF Women's Circuit
Tarakan, Indonesia
5 - 11 May 2008

WOMEN'S DOUBLES

First Round
(WC)Jessica Yang/T. J. Welford (HKG/AUS) d. Renee Binnie/Kei Sekine (AUS/JPN) 4-6 7-5 [10-8]

Quarterfinals
(WC)Jessica Yang/T. J. Welford (HKG/AUS) d. (1)Chen Yan-Chong/Liang Chen (CHN) 6-4 1-6 [10-5]

Semifinals
(WC)Jessica Yang/T. J. Welford (HKG/AUS) d. Wukirasih Sawondari/Lavinia Tananta (INA) 4-6 6-4 [10-4]

Final
Liza Andriyani/Ayu-Fani Damayanti (INA) d. (WC)Jessica Yang/T. J. Welford (HKG/AUS) 6-2 6-3

WOMEN'S SINGLES QUALIFYING

First Round
Jessica Yang (HKG) d. Chen Yen-Ling (TPE) 6-3 6-1

Qualifying Round
(1)Ayumi Oka (JPN) d. Jessica Yang (HKG) 5-7 6-3 7-5

Results
US$25,000 ITF Women's Circuit
Changwon, Korea
5 - 11 May 2008

WOMEN'S SINGLES

First Round
Zhang Ling (HKG) d. Erika Sema (JPN) 6-1 6-4

Second Round
Zhang Ling (HKG) d. (1)Jarmila Gajdosova (SVK) 6-1 6-4

Quarterfinal
Xie Yan-Ze (CHN) d. Zhang Ling (HKG) 6-7(4) 6-0 7-6(4)