US$600,000 WTA Bangalore Open, March 3rd-9th 2008

[PKBasu]

As Mamta has reported in another thread, the Bangalore Open has been upgraded this year to a Tier-II WTA tour event. Way to go, Bangalore organisers. As Sania's ranking rises, she must have tournaments in her home country that are commensurate with her standing in the tennis world. Here is some preliminary information:

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/tour ... galore.asp

And the announcement of changes in the WTA tour for 2008:

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/1/ne ... entID=1911

[jaydeep]

Wow ... Thats great news and I wish like Sania our other players also use this opportunity to rise their ranking.

[VReddy]

Anybody from SI going there for this? I will be in Bangalore at that time for Qualies and the first few days of the event atleast.

[jaydeep]

WR #14 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland has officially confirmed her participation in the $600,000 WTA Bangalore Open which ... Patty  Schnyder is the second top 20 player, after Serena Williams, who confirmed their participation.

Patty Schnyder - “It is great to be part of India’s first Tier II tennis extravaganza at Bangalore. This is my first visit to India and I am as much thrilled as anyone would be to visit this great nation. I look forward to playing great tennis at Bangalore in front of passionate lovers of the sport.”

[jaydeep]

As per UNI news, Sania is planning to skip Banglore Open ... I m surprised to see this news.

Sania not to participate in Bangalore Open
SPORTS-TENNIS-SANIA (SPORTS) Created on : 02/04/2008 3:16:39 PM

(PRIORITY)Bangalore, Feb 4 (UNI) Sania Mirza's fans are in for a big disappointment as the Indian tennis sensation has chosen not to participate in the 600,000 Dollar WTA Tier II 'Bangalore Open', to be held here from March three.

Disclosing her non-participation in the week-long event, Tournament Director R Sunder Raju told newspersons that no reason had been ascribed by Sania for not participating in the event. ''It is a disappointment,'' he added.

''Her entry was not received at the closure of entry for the qualifying rounds on January 20,'' he added.

[jaydeep]

#6 Venus Williams and #19 Sybille Bammer of Austria also confirmed their participation ... So that means 4 players from top-20 r playing.

Venus Williams confirms participation in Bangalore Open

I wish Sania will play with wildcard here ... Anybody knows latest about her torn adductor muscle injury? May be Docs asked her to break from tour for more than 4 weeks to full recovery.

[jaydeep]

Some of confirm entries - list updated

Jelena Jankovic (SRB,4)
Venus Williams (USA,6)
Serena Williams (USA,10)
Patty Schnyder (SUI,14)
Agnes Szavay (HUN,18)
Sybille Bammer (AUT,19)
Vera Zvonareva (RUS,25)
Maria Kirilenko (RUS,27)
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK,46)
Akiko Morigami (JPN,47)
Shuai Peng (CHN,50)
Meilen Tu (USA,51)
Meghann Shaughnessy (USA,55)
Casey Dellacqua (AUS,57)
Zi Yan (CHN,60)
Yung-Jan Chan (TPE,65)
Angelique Kerber (GER,72)
Yaroslava Shvedova (RUS,75)
Anastasia Rodionova (RUS,81)
Tzipora Obziler (ISR,83)
Olga Savchuk (UKR,85)
Anne Kremer (LUX,98)
Aiko Nakamura (JPN,102)
Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS,107)
Roberta Vinci (ITA,119)

[sameerph]

Yeah, it is a big surprise that Sania is not in the initial entry list for Bangalore. She is still in the entry list for Doha & Dubai . So, it may not be injury issue.

She was having trouble in eariler years adjusting to high altitude conditions in Bangalore . But, it will be big blow to the organisers if Sania skips this premier tournament in India.

[PKBasu]

Terribly, terribly sad that it has come to this:

http://in.rediff.com/sports/2008/feb/04sania1.htm

Every crank and crackpot in the country has every right to do and say whatever they feel like, and file whatever absurd lawsuit they wish. And our greatest woman tennis player of all time no longer feels entirely safe playing in India. What an absolute disgrace! Will our useless politicians and "leaders" please wake up?

[jayakris]

If she were to skip a year without hurting the tournament all that much, this would be one.    With Venus and Serena in the list, I don't think their sponsors would complain too badly.  The extra gate revenue from the Sania matches would be always good, but that is not a big revenue item in India anyway.

But it is sad if she is not there at an Indian event.  Very curious that she is skipping that week.  Probably Doha and Dubai made "offers she could not refuse" in the previous two weeks and she has to play Indian Wells and Miami in the next two weeks - which means 7 continuous weeks of playing, as the two US events are 2 weeks events.  Probably she is beginning to be careful about doing things like playing 7 weeks on the trot? ... In any case, she is in for a lot of criticism for this.

Jay

[jayakris]

I typed that just before seeing the rediff article with Sania's reason for skipping.  Very sad that Islamic fundamentalists have caused this girl to take such an extreme measure ..  Fatwas, death-threats, short skirts, filming in mosque premises .. so on and so forth.  What crap.

Mind you, till the latest flag lawsuit, only Muslims have turned against her in the past.  So I am calling a spade a spade here.

PKB, I don't know what the politicians can do, because most of her problems do not seem to be from the politicians.

Jay

[akmohanty]

I am just dumbfounded if this is indeed the reason. This is a really shameful day for Indian sport.  I had taken all this stuff about lawsuits and fatwas as mere noises but it's starting to affect decisions now. it's a very sorry state of affiars if this is true. if people don't know how to appreciate the extraordinary, unprecedented achievements of this girl, they should atleast just leave her alone. 

[jaydeep]

Really sad to know 'true' reason behind this ... And I m fully supporting Sania on this issue for what this young gal went through becoz of stupid law suits, fatwa on any dress she wears or action she did on or off court ... But who's brain is behind thisl? Means who suggested Team Sania to take such action? I think may be Mahesh Bhupathi. (this is my thought, so if u want to blame then please blame me ... )

[Omkara]

Sania I support u on this issue. Sourav Ganguly once said the there are too many news channels in India and competition for mindspace is getting tough; need for a breaking news getting bigger. This obviously fuels people to go for their 5 minutes of fame by putting petitions, raising fatwas.

A right decision. Just stay an Indian from heart. Forget the rest.

[puneets]

This had to come sooner or later. I don't blame Sania personally for this because I guess it was Team Sania's decsion and her role might have been limited. Those morons (fatwa issuers etc) have robbed us of a great tournament. 

But I don't understand this sudden turnaround. Did she get any death threats or something ? I see her endorsing products, shooting ads, attending ceremonies in India on a regular basis. If she can make herself available for all those activities, then why not for a tennis match, the thing that got her to such a position ?