ITF Women's tennis meet to mark 150 years of Mumbai Univ from Mar 19

Mumbai, Mar 16 (UNI) Ankita Bhambri and Isha Lakhani will lead the Indian challenge in the ITF Women's 25,000 dollar Tennis tournament, which will be held in suburban Santacruz from March 19 to 24.

The tournament, to be played on the hard court of the Kalina University Campus, is being organised by the All India Tennis Association and the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association. It includes both singles and doubles.

The Kalina Campus will host its maiden tennis tournament on the 150th Anniversary Celebrations of the University of Mumbai.

Bhambri is No 439 in the WTA rankings, while Lakhani is 535. The duo is likely to pose a strong challenge to the likes of Shiho Hisamatsu of Japan, who is the highest ranked player in the tournament at 160, China's Yan-Chong Chen (195) and Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan (233), who is a regular on the circuit and is familiar with the conditions here.

Joining the Indian challenge are veteran Rushmi Chakravarthi, who at No 393 in the WTA list, is the highest ranked Indian in the draw, Tara Iyer (539) and Sanaa Bhambri (553).

The Indians in the qualifiers, which will be held on March 17 and 18, include Sonal Phadke (701), Asha Nandakumar (767), Archana Venkatraman (806) and Geeta Manohar (875).

UNI