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All eyes will be on the Williams sisters

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Players will have to grapple with new conditions, especially altitude

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

STAR ATTRACTION: Serena Williams and Venus Williams are expected to attract huge crowds to the WTA Bangalore Open tennis championship.

Bangalore: The buzz around the Williams sisters — Venus and Serena — is so deafening that top seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and defending champion Yaroslava Shvedova cannot be blamed if they believe that they are living on another planet.

But then you cannot argue with 14 Grand Slam titles and the former World number one tags that add to the Williams’ halo and as the $600,000 Bangalore Open WTA Tier II event gets set for a Monday morning start, the sisters are indeed the lodestones expected to lure spectators to the KSLTA courts.

The fans, however, will have to wait till Wednesday for a glimpse of the Williams sisters. Venus (second seed) and Serena (third-seeded), along with top seed Jankovic and fourth seed Patty Schnyder, have been given a bye into the second round.

No all-Williams final

But the entertaining prospect of a final between the Williams sisters was quashed in the draw ceremony as both Venus and Serena are placed in the bottom half of the draw and if they stay on course, would run into each other in the semifinals.

However, there is no collision course in doubles as the sisters will play together.

Top-seeded Jankovic — with a WTA ranking of four to her credit and a semifinal appearance at the Australian Open — along with the Williams sisters, Patty Schnyder and other players in the top-10 seedings list will have to contend with banana-peels that a tournament’s early rounds could well turn out to be as they grapple with new conditions, especially the altitude factor here, which is 921 metres above sea level.

Consistency the key

The ball speed will be quick and Vijay Amritraj said that, “One has to play a percentage game here and avoid getting into early errors. I see, someone like Patty Shnyder, who doesn’t give points easily, faring well here. Not many realise that matches are won these days based on errors and the consistent players are the ones who win.” The hard courts that were re-laid in the build up to the tournament are shaping up well and the Indian angle though muted in the absence of Sania, will hinge on the two wild cards — Isha Lakhani and Shikha Uberoi.

Isha is pitted against a qualifier while Shikha will have to test her mettle against Agnes Szavay, the fifth seed.

Both the players had their stints here earlier and conditions are familiar to them and if they end up playing an error free game, they can spring a few surprises. Meanwhile the organiser — the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association — is happy that all the top players they promised have turned up for the tournament which has been upgraded from its earlier Tier III version in the previous years.

“It should be a wonderful tournament with all the top players here and I wish they take with them some wonderful memories,” said Sunder Raju, tournament director and KSLTA secretary.

The following players entered the final qualifying rounds scheduled for Monday: Melanie South (GBR), A. Szatmari (Rou), A. Bachmann (Ger), M. Johansson (Fra), M. Niculescu (Rou), A. Keothavong (GBR), T. Sun (Chn) and Sunitha Rao (Ind).

The seedings: Singles (top eight): 1. Jelena Jankovic (Srb); 2. Venus Williams (USA); 3. Serena Williams (USA); 4. Patty Schnyder (Sui); 5. Agnes Szavay (Hun); 6. Sybille Bammer (Aut); 7. Vera Zvonareva (Rus); 8. Maria Kirilenko (Rus).

Doubles (top four): 1. S. Peng & T. Sun; 2. Y. Chan & C. Chuang; 3. Z. Yan & J. Zheng; 4. A. Rodionova & Y. Shvedova.

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