Hantuchova,Bartolli,Krilenko and Mirza set to star in Sunfeast Open

Kolkata, Aug 8 (UNI) The third edition of Sunfeast Open is all set to be the biggest WTA event is South Asia with four of the leading ladies of world tennis- Daniela Hantuchova, Marion Bartoli, Maria Krilenko and Sania Mirza- all ready to set the courts on fire from September 17.

The Tier III WTA Tour event with a prize money of 1, 75,000 dollar will be held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium from September 17-23.

If the tournament had given us the likes of Martina Hingis and Anastasia Myskina, then its a roll call of stars this time round.

''The tournament organisers have set a very high entry level for this year's championship and the competition is surely going to be much tougher than the previous two years,'' said tournament director Jaidip Mukherjee, while announcing the list of players.

Mahesh Bhupathai, whose Globosports promotes the tournament, talking to the media from Canada, said, ''This is the biggest Sunfeast Open with a fab mixture of glamour and talent. We have tried to put together some of the finest names in tennis. Danilela Hantuchova, Maria Krilenko and Marion Bartoli are some of the biggest names along with Sania Mirza.'' Bhupathi will be playing in the doubles of Canadian Open partnering Jamie Murray of Great Britain.

Mukherjea added, ''Our cut off point this year is 105. Apart from Hantuchova, Bartoli and Sania, we have also confirmed the participation of Maria Kirilenko of Russia.

''All of these players are at the top of their game and are also future stars. So you can expect them to put their best foot forward'', added Mukherjee Kirilenko is ranked 35th in the latest WTA ranking chart. But definitely all eyes will be on Sania who have done well in the recent past and had an excellent season so far, since coming back from a career threatening knee injury three months back. Sania reached the final of the recently concluded Stanford Classic before going down to top seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-2. She also won the doubles title partnering Shahar Peer of Israel. The Indo-Israel duo defeated Anna Chakvetadze and Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in the final.

The Hyderabad hurricane has now beaten World No. 12 Martina Hingis in the second round of the East West Bank Classic. Mirza has now played Hingis four times and the overall head to head count is 2-2.

Sania took 1 hour 36 minutes to wrap up the match 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 and has over the last few weeks downed the likes of Tatiana Golovin, Patty Schnyder, Dinara Safina and now Hingis.

Bartoli was a revelation this Wimbeldon. Coming into the tournament as the 18th seed, the French woman downed a few of the top seeds like Jelena Jankovic and Justin Henin before eventually losing out to American ace Venus Williams in the final.

The other top draws are, last year's Bangalore Open winner Yaraslova Shvedova who is currently enjoying a career high ranking of 74 and Russian teenager Alla Kudryavtseva. The Russian gave eventual champion Venus a scare in the first round of the Wimbeldon before going down 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, after an epic battle.

This year's top seed, Hantuchova has also been in sublime form this season, winning her second WTA Tour title at Indian Wells in March. Hantuchova is also an accomplished doubles player and have partnered tennis legend Martina Narvatilova for the 2005 season.

Few of the top Indians players like Sunita Rao and the Uberoi sisters, Neha and Shikha are expected to earn wild-card entries for the main draw.

The tournament organizers have roped in Ten-Sports as their broadcast partner for the third year running and the complex process for handling of tickets will be taken care off by Ticketpro from this year round.

UNI