$170K WTA Sunfeast Open Kolkata (Uberois in Doubles Final!)

[sameerph]

WTA world has posted the entry list for Sunfeast open. This as follows :-

MAINDRAW

1 F MYSKINA Anastasia RUS 14
2 A MIRZA Sania IND 48
3 F DIAZ-OLIVA Mariana ARG 66 2
4 F SERRA ZANETTI Antonella ITA 69 2
5 A POUS TIO Laura ESP 78 2
6 F CAMERIN Maria elena ITA 79 2
7 F SPREM Karolina CRO 80
8 F TANASUGARN Tamarine THA 88 2
9 A FUJIWARA Rika JPN 101 2
10 A BAMMER Sybille AUT 103 3
11 F SANCHEZ LORENZO Maria ESP 104 2
12 A KLOESEL Sandra GER 105 3
13 F GAGLIARDI Emmanuelle SUI 108 1
14 F DOMINIKOVIC Evie AUS 115 2
15 A PELLETIER Marie-eve CAN 116 2
16 F OBZILER Tzipora ISR 117 2
17 A ARVIDSSON Sofia SWE 118 1
18 F FEDAK Yuliana UKR 119 2
19 F FORETZ Stephanie FRA 121 1
20 F WIDJAJA Angelique INA 122 S 2
21 F PARRA SANTONJA Arantxa ESP 123 2
22 A SROMOVA Hana CZE 124 2
23 F CZINK Melinda HUN 125 1
24 W
25 W
26 W Gold/Silver Exempt ONLY:
27 Q
28 Q
29 Q
30 Q
31 X Fano, ITA 27Jun05 (Kaia Kanepi)
32 X Petange, LUX 18Jul05 (Victoria Azarenka)


NEXT IN/QUALIFYING

1 A UBEROI Shikha IND 128 2
2 A VOSKOBOEVA Galina RUS 129 2
MDO A LAINE Emma FIN 132 3
MDO F SALERNI Ma. emilia ARG 135 2
3 F MULLER Martina GER 139 2
4 A GALLOVITS Edina ROM 141 2
MDO F TU Meilen USA 142 3
MDO F SEQUERA Milagros VEN 145 2
5 F FERNANDEZ Clarisa ARG 147 2
MDO F MARTINEZ GRANADOS Conchita ESP 148 2
6 A GRANDIN Natalie RSA 151 2
MDO A KANEPI Kaia EST 152 S 2
7 F WEINGARTNER Marlene GER 153 1
MDO A HENKE Vanessa GER 157 3
MDO F KREMER Anne LUX 161 3
8 A HISAMATSU Shiho JPN 169 2
MDO A WOERLE Kathrin GER 171 2
9 A RAO Sunitha USA 172
10 A JOHANSSON Mathilde FRA 173 2
11 A VESNINA Elena RUS 177 2
12 A FUDA Ryoko JPN 179 1
13 A HRDINOVA Eva CZE 180 3
14 W
15 W
16 $25K Phuket, THA (Montinee Tangphong)

Sania should be seeded 2nd there behind Myskina. Shikha is just 1 out from main draw & good to Sunitha listed in qualifying.

[gvhvhg]

Only 4 tourneys in the WTA calendar this year have 16 player qualifying draws (Kolkata, Guangzhou, Tashkent & Bali). As you can see, they're all in Asia and apart from Kolkata, they're all outdoor tourneys.

Atleast they don't have 16 player main draws!!! *cough* Forest Hills *cough*

Great to see that Sania will (if the entry list holds up) be the second seed, giving her a great chance to win the first of many "Indian Doubles"!

[amr090]

Well personally I hope they get another top 20 maybe a top 10 player in there. It would be nice to see one of the belgians or the WIlliams sisters in there.

[Sandeep]

I don't exactly remeber the Hyderabad draw, but is this one more tougher (taking out Myskina) being a tier III event?

Myskina is very much injury prone. I would be very happy if she is fit by the time the tournament starts! She is playing with injury in the Rogers cup also.

[nkoth]

Yikes, this is a pretty weak entry list for a Tier III event. I would have thought that the strong Chinese contingent would have made the trip, but I guess not.

Quite pleased to see Sunitha's name in the qualifier list as well.

I suppose one or both of the Bhambri sisters will pick up wildcards, but I hope they also consider Isha, who has shown she can do damage on the big stage before.

-neil

[Sandeep]

How about Neha? I guess she will also be in contention for wildcard. Moreover globosport manages her right?

[jayakris]

The Kolkata WTA is in one of the few weeks on the tour with three events - that is the reason for the less-than-stellar field. But it is pretty good for an inaugural event.

The other events are the Tier-II in China (Beijing) and the Tier-IV in Slovakia. That is the reason why the whole Chinese contingent, and really most of the Asians except Tammi and Angie, are missing.

Neha will definitely get a wildcard. She is not completely "managed" by Globosport, but they do look out for the Uberois. Good that Shikha will not need a wildcard.

Jay

[vishnureddy]

good to Sunitha listed in qualifying.

Yeah thats the only bright spot for me in an otherwise dissappointing entry list. Frankly, except Myskina , i think the Hyderabad Open had much better main draw players in terms of talent as we had emerging players like Peer, Kirilenko, Douchevina, Zheng, Li Na, Groenefeld,etc,. playing here. But it presents a very good oppurtunity for Indians to make some inroads

[jayakris]

There was an article in the Indian Express a couple of days back about two more known names coming - Mary Pierce and Conchita Martinez.

http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_fu ... t_id=76493

The article seems to imply that the Chief minister has done what is needed for appearance money? .. Let us see.

I know, we true fans would rather see a Shahar Peer or Michaela Krajicek or a Kirilenko, but it would be good if Conchita and Mary add somke color.

Jay

[jayakris]

Shoot .. I just realized that there was a pretty bad blunder in the Sunfeast Open logo ... (You can see it at the web page, http://www.sunfeastopen.com )

The logo shows a wrong type of bridge for Kolkata. Unless I am mistaken, Kolkata does not have a suspension bridge. The first Hooghly bridge (Rabindra Setu, popularly known as the Howrah bridge) is a cantiliver bridge with a suspended middle truss span, the Vevekananda Setu is a multiple-span simply-supported-truss bridge, and the new bridge (Vidyasagar Setu) is a cable-stayed bridge, NOT a suspension bridge.

There is big differences between a cable suspension bridge like the Verazaano Narrows or Golden Gate bridge, where the primary cables are pulled over the pilons and anchored on the shores with the deck suspended from those two cables, and the one in Kolkata, which has cables directly fanning from the two pilons to the deck without anything really being "suspended"- the Kolkata bridge is a cable-stayed bridge .. They look quite different, and in my view the cable-stayed bridges with the fanning cables is a more beautiful bridge (and would have looked nicer for the Sunfeast Open logo!). Here is some wiki pages on cable-stayed bridges and cable-suspension-bridges.

I cannot believe I did not notice the logo when it first appeared, which must have been a few months back. As far as I can see, this is a huge blunder. Do Kolkatans draw the wrong type of bridge as a symbol of the city normally? -- How come nobody noticed it? -- am I in a warped universe?

Is there a suspension bridge there that I don't know about? -- if not, I would like to contact Mahesh and at least let him know about it. Perhaps the logo can be still changed!

Jay

PS: My undergraduate senior thesis at IIT Madras in 1985 was on the design of a cable-stayed bridge. There were no cable-stayed bridges in India then. The design is quite different from suspension bridges.

[PKBasu]

Wonderful to know that Mary Pierce will be coming to Kolkata. Mahesh must have had something to do with this. Mary is in fabulous form this year, and she will definitely add a good deal of glamour to the event.

[PKBasu]

The bridge isn't the only blooper on the web page. The photograph of the Netaji Indoor stadium seems to show an outdoor stadium...!

[PKBasu]

Man, what a terrific line-up of star players! We have two former French Open champions -- Mary Pierce and Anastasia Myskina -- and a former Wimbledon champion, Conchita Martinez.
But the tournament website has just four photographs in the "player line-up": Sania Mirza, Myskina, Shikha and Neha Uberoi!! I love that (although it's still probably a bit premature to put Neha there). We now have some women we can legitimately flaunt as our very own tennis stars!

[Sandeep]

How come nobody noticed it? -- am I in a warped universe?

Proved that you are a civil engineer! How many people would have noticed bridge on logo leave alone type of bridge?

[amr090]

Jay another embarassing mistake you may want to tell MB is if you go to the player profile of Neha Uberoi theres a picture of Shikha there with Michael Barkann of the USA network.

I think MB maybe embarassed that his own website doesnt know what Neha looks like!