NUSA DUA (Indonesia), Sept 9: Yugoslavia’s fourth seed Jelena Dokic was an early casualty at the 225,000-dollar WTA tournament here on Tuesday, falling 7-5, 6-3 to Tathiana Garbin of Italy in the first round.

Garbin was more consistent than Dokic, whose erratic play reached a climax when she served three consecutive double faults while serving for the first set at 5-4.

Dokic broke serve in the first game of the second set but Garbin pulled herself back into the set to break Dokic’s service twice and take the victory.

“I had chances to win the match, even if I lost in two (sets),” said Dokic, who has still not decided whether she will play at the Australian Open next January. “I had big leads and I let them go. I beat myself more than she beat me. It’s just up and down, on and off in the match. That’s the problem.”

Fifth seed Tamarine Tanasugarn claimed the first 6-0, 6-0 scoreline of her career when she overwhelmed Australia’s Nicole Pratt in just 44 minutes.

Tanasugarn has been in fine form recently having beaten Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova at the US Open to earn an audience with the King of Thailand.

Another seed to fall was France’s Emilie Loit, the seventh seed, who was ousted 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 by Ivana Abramovic of Croatia.

Results (x denotes seeding):

First Round: Emmanuelle Gagliardi (SWI) bt Corina Morariu (USA) 6-4, 6-3; Tathiana Gardin (ITA) bt Jelena Dokic (YUG x4) 7-5, 6-3; Jie Zheng (CHN) bt Flavia Penneta (ITA) 6-3, 6-2; Ivana Abramovic (CRO) bt Emilie Loit (FRA) 7-6 (7/4), 7-5; Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) bt Tian Tian Sun (CHN) 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-1; Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA x5) bt Nicole Pratt (AUS) 6-0, 6-0; Maria Sanchez Lorenzo (SPA x9) bt Sarah Taylor (USA) 6-1, 6-4.—AFP