French lass enters semis; rain halts play

MANILA, Philippines - Third seed Elodie Rogge-Dietrich of France held off Peangthan Pliphuech of Thailand, 6-4, 7-5, to advance to the semifinal round of the rain-hit PLDT-Smart ITF Women’s Circuit Week 2 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

Rogge-Dietrich, seeded third in this weeklong tournament presented by PLDT and Smart and backed by ITF Grand Slam Development Fund, finished off the eighth-ranked Pliphuech in over an hour before heavy downpour forced the organizers to reset the other matches for today.

Fil-German Katharina Lehnert posted a 7-6(3), 3-3 lead over No. 5 Chen Yi of Chinese Taipei when play was called off due to darkness and wet, slippery surface.

“I was leading when it rained hard. I hope it will not stop me from still making the semis again,” said the 16-year-old Lehnert, a losing semifinalist in last week’s event.

Also vying for the other semis berths are top seed Gally de Wael of Belgium who will go up against No. 6 Yasmin Schnack of the US and No. 2 Piia Suomalainen of Finland who clashes with qualifier Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand.

The Suomalainen-Kumkhum duel will actually be a rematch of their title showdown in Week One with the taller, long-limbed Finnish prevailing over the Thai.

In doubles’ action, No. 4 Chae Kyung-Yee and Kim Jung-Eun of South Korea walloped Israel’s Ofri Lankri and India’s Ashvarya Shrivastava, 6-2, 6-4, to barge into the quarterfinals of the weeklong meet backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, Slazenger Balls, Chris Sports, Viva Mineral Water, Coca-Cola, Powerade and Century Park Hotel.

Joining Chae and Kim were the Chinese pair of Yang Zhaoxuan and Zhu Lin, who routed Koreans Kim Ji-Young and Kim Jin-Hee, 6-2, 6-1.

Lehnert also remains in contention in the doubles’ event with partner India’s Nimisha Mohan.