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ndonesian Aldila Sutjiadi and her partner Rutuja Bhosale of India are getting closer to the final of the Australia Open junior tournament.

The pair advanced to the semifinals for the junior girls’ doubles division at the Australia Open after defeating Irina Maria Bara (Romania) and Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) 5-7, 6-1, 10-7 on Wednesday.

“I’m very happy now, because this is my first time to play in a Grand Slam, and I can go through to the semifinals, even if only in doubles,” the 17-years-old Aldila told The Jakarta Post.

Aldila and Bhosale advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating Australian pair Naiktha Bains and Danielle Wagland 5-7, 6-2, 10-5 on Tuesday.

In Thursday’s semifinals, Aldila and Bhosale will play the 2011 US Open’s runners-up Gabrielle Andrews (US) and Taylor Townsend (US) who thrashed the fourth-seeded pair of Anna Schmiedlova (Slovakia) and Sabina Sharipova (Uzbekistan) 6-1, 6-0 during their quarterfinal match.

“I guess they are good because they were the runners-up in the [2011] US Open, and they have been partnered for some time. This is our first meeting and perhaps the only thing we can do is to play more aggressively,” said Aldila.

Aldila, who was recently paired with Bhosale, said it was difficult to play with her Indian partner initially, but they have started to get to know each other.

“I had no plans at all to pair with her, but in a previous tournament I asked around and all of the players already had their own partner, so I asked her and she agreed to pair with me,” said Aldila.

While other Indonesian players were looking for a wild card to the Australia Open, the right-handed Aldila entered main draw of the Grand Slam tournament due to her ITF junior rank, which in Jan. 2, 2012, was set at 73.

“I have been aiming to play in a Grand Slam this year … that’s why I took part in as many as tournaments last year in order to boost my rank,” said Aldila who was accompanied by her coach, Hadiman, to the Open.

Improvements in her ranking were partly due to wins in girls singles and girls doubles — pairing with Buayam of Thailand — at Tecnifibre LTAT ITF Junior G2 in October last year, and a win in girls doubles — pairing with Japan’s Okuno — at the Asian Closed Junior Tennis Championship in Chennai, India, in May last year.

“Per yesterday [Tuesday] her ITF junior rank is 80, we hope that by next week her rank will be up to around 75, and we have targeted to become top 50 this year,” said Aldila’s father Indriatno Sutjiadi.

Aldila has been playing tennis since she was four, thanks to her family and her big brother Jonathan A. Sutjiadi, a former national junior player.

“I have gone to the tennis court since I was a child. My family likes to play tennis and my brother is a junior tennis player — I like to go with him to tennis court. I have been in love with tennis ever since.”