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| Thursday, 14 August 2003 |
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Professional women's tennis here for first time by Dinesh Weerawansa A new chapter in tennis would be opened when Sri Lanka hosts its first-ever international women's tournament, which would inject professionalism into the local circuit. A rich purse awaits the champions. Under the able leadership of its President Suresh Subramaniam, Sri Lanka Tennis Association has been successful in winning the confidence of the international tennis community to host their maiden international professional women's tournament in Colombo next week. The inaugural Sri Lanka professional women's tournament will be worked off from August 18 to 23 at the National Tennis Centre, Green Path in Colombo. A total of US $ 10,000 would be on offer as prize money, which will be furnished by the main sponsor, Jembo Cables Pvt. Ltd. Sri Lanka Tennis chief Subramaniam paid a tribute to Cahayadi Santoso and Jembo Cables for coming forward to support a major ITF Tournament for the second successive time. The week-long tournament will feature two events, singles, with a main draw of 32 players, and doubles, which will have a 16-pair main draw. Twenty-one slots in the main draw, of the singles, have already been filled by ranked players nominated by the ITF. Three have been set aside for wild card entries while the eight top finishers of the August 17-18 qualifying round will complete the competitors list for the main draw. Five Sri Lankan players have already entered for the qualifying round to gain a place in the main draw. The Tournament directress, Shalini De Silva was of the view that this would give our players valuable exposure. Sri Lanka women's international tournament is the newest in the Women's ITF Asian circuit. It would be followed by two other similar tournaments to be worked off in Bangkok in early August. The new women's international circuit is projected to help the young, fringe players to gain world-ranking points. It would also help the emerging stars to stimulate their ambitions of playing in the big league. It is staged under an ITF scheme entitled the Grand Slam Development Fund. Napaporn Tongsalee of Thailand is expected to be accorded top seed status by virtue of her 309th world ranking, the highest to figure in Colombo. Ironically, she competes as a wild card entry. The Thai lass made an eleventh hour decision to play here. Her decision to play in Colombo had come after entries had closed. Hence, she had to make an appeal to the ITF and was later given a wild card entry. "That means there are only two wild card entries," said De Silva. The next highest ranked player is Indian Rushmi Chakravarthi, 429th in the world. The lowest ranked is Australian Rebecca Turner at 1164. India with 13 players dominates the entry list, which also includes players from Thailand, Germany, Chinese-Taipei, The United Kingdom and The Republic Czechoslovakia. The world governing body - the International Tennis Federation has once again shown their keenness and faith in the SLTA in awarding the right to host the $10,000 women's professional tournament. "This is sixth of nine ITF tournaments we've been given to host this year. By any measurement it is quite a heavy international calendar, but we take it as a challenge on our journey to full professionalism. Obviously the ITF are pleased with our progress - and full credit must be given to our band of dedicated officials," SLTA president Subramaniam said. Subramaniam said the tournament would be a boost to Sri Lanka in many aspects as it is at professional level, while pointing the economic benefits that will accrue to the country. "Accommodation of players will not cost the SLTA anything - the players in fact will bear all their expenses while competing in Colombo," Subramaniam concluded. |
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