The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : WTA tennis contest takes off

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 14, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

WTA tennis contest takes off

Kalyan Ashok

Bangalore: The long wait for the fans was finally over with the Sony Ericsson WTA international championship getting on the court with a slew of matches and there were visible signs of relief on the faces of the KSLTA officials. On a hectic day, which saw 16 ties, which included singles as well as a few doubles, the spectators had full excitement.

There was not much of a crowd during the day, but the numbers gathered after dusk, all turning up to watch the Indian challengers Tara Iyer and Shikha Uberoi in action and more importantly, Sania Mirza's doubles tie later in the night.

Call it a stage fright or simply lack of experience at this level, the young Tara Iyer, who received a wild card, was blown off the court by Slovakian rival Dominika Cibulkova. There was an early upset in the tournament with Yurika Sema of Japan knocking out the fifth seed Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine. The young Japanese was far more at ease in the three set contest, having gone couple of qualifying ties earlier. Matching the court colour scheme, the players turned up in riot of colours and attire.

Health Minister R. Ashok, presided over the formal inauguration in the evening, though ties for the day began at 10 a.m.

There will be another long round of matches on Wednesday, to make up for the loss of play on Monday due to the bandh.

Sania will take the court and needless to say, she will hold the court.

The ticket sales, though not very brisk, picked up with many turning up for evening matches.

The organisers sure hope it would increase over the next few days when the event gathers steam.

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