Sania uncertain for Sunfeast Open, spotlight on Bartoli, Hantuchova

The participation of Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza remains uncertain in the Sunfeast Open tennis tournament commencing here Monday owing to her wrist injury, shifting the spotlight to the two top seeds Marion Bartoli and Daniela Hantuchova.

If Sania plays, the third seeded Indian will take on wild card entrant Sunitha Rao in the first round, while top seed and World number 10 Marion Bartoli of France faces American Vania King in her opening tie at the Netaji Indoor Stadium.

Sunitha, 208th in the WTA rankings, will definitely consider herself unlucky to have drawn the Indian number one as Sania is in sublime form this season having reached her career high of 27 in the world, but in their only previous meeting at the 2002 Mumbai Hard Court, Sunitha had beaten Sania 6-3, 6-3.

However, Sunitha can't blame anyone as she is the one who herself picked Sania. On the flip side, if Mirza pulls out, Sunita will have to play the lucky loser from the qualifiers.

For top seed Bartoli, the tournament could help her regain some self-confidence and form before the tough European circuit leading to the WTA year-ender in Madrid.

Second seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, who recently swapped places with Bartoli to drop to 12th in the world rankings, would like to continue with the purple patch she hit in the Bali Open after the nightmarish first round ouster at the US Open.

Talking to the media, French star Bartoli said: "I want to play Sunfeast Open in order get some valuable ranking points and then go on and play some stronger tournaments in Europe and collect as many points as I can."

"Besides I have come to India once before when I played in Hyderabad. I love to see different cities and countries and want to enjoy my stay in Kolkata," the 2007 Wimbledon finalist said.

The Frenchwoman has a prospective semi-final face-off with Sania if things go according to the formbook. On her experience of playing the Indian ace, Bartoli said, "I played her once before and she was quite cozy in beating me. However, if we meet here it will be a tough match."

Sania came up trumps in their only previous meeting at the 2005 US Open.

In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Daniela Hantuchova faces last year's Bangalore Open winner Yaroslava Shvedova. Fourth seed Maria Kirilenko also features in the bottom half and has a relatively easy round one, taking on a qualifier.

Wild card entrant, Kyra Shroff of India who turns 15 in October faces eighth seed Chan Yung-jan of Chinese Taipei, while the other Indian in the main draw, Tara Iyer takes on Italian seventh seed Flavia Pennetta.

The tournament is not likely to feature many Indians as most of the qualifiers have already been brushed aside. Rushmi Chakraverty or Neha Oberoi could be the only other Indians to make it the main draw.

Article Source: http://www.share.onlypunjab.com

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