The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Albina

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 31, 2005

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Albina — a star in the making

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 30. The hoardings around the R.K. Khanna Stadium invite your attention towards Sania Mirza playing the Fed Cup in about a fortnight's time, but if you are in a hurry to see a star in the making look out for Albina Khabibulina of Uzbekistan in the ITF Asian under-14 Zone I tennis championship to be staged here from Monday.

The coaches rave about the 12-year-old Uzbek's fluency of strokeplay and see a tremendous potential in her.

No wonder Albina has been seeded No. 1 in the girls' draw, as the assessment is based on the impact the players make during a three-day camp rather than any international ranking that is non-existent for this age group.

Though the charm of an Asian contest is lost because of the absence of leading countries like South Korea, China and Japan, it should be interesting to see the players from Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, Syria, Iran, Kuwait and Myanmar slug it out in two successive tournaments for precious berths in the ITF Asian team for the European circuit.

Being the host, India has the luxury of fielding five boys and five girls as compared to three each for the visiting teams.

There are also teams from the central, south and west zones where similar tournaments had been conducted to select the cream of talent to compete in the current exercise.

The coach in charge of the Indian boys and girls, T. Chandrasekaran, felt that third-seeded Christopher Marquis could be the best bet among the boys, where Mansingh Athare has been seeded seventh.

It will be difficult to subdue local lad Yuki Bhambri, the younger brother of champion sisters Ankita and Sanaa Bhambri, who had done very well in Australia prior to the Australian Open.

Moreover, the 12-year-old Yuki had also played his part very well as a member of the Indian under-14 team for the more prestigious ITF Asia-Oceania World junior competition last year.

Among the girls, Shweta Kumari Solanki has been seeded fifth and Janaki Rao eighth.

Overall, it should be a lively fortnight of action, if you care to watch the miniature future champions.

The seedings:

Boys: 1. Pattrayu Chumpetch (Tha), 2. Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe), 3. Christopher Marquis, 4. Ryan Cheung (Hkg), 5. Tito Farulian Hutauruk (Ina), 6. Pao Wichayaketsophorn (Tha), 7. Mansingh Athare and 8. Alexander Chen (Uzb).

Girls: 1. Albina Khabibulina (Uzb), 2. Alexandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb), 3. Yun Ku (Tpe), 4. Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (Tha), 5. Shweta Kumari Solanki, 6. Beatrice Gumulya, 7. Satjaporn Mahajaroenkul (Tha) and 8. Janaki Rao.

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