Hingis leads star brigade for Sunfeast Open,accorded warm welcome

Kolkata, Sep 15 (UNI) Seven tennis divas, including former world No one Martina Hingis, arrived to a traditional welcome to the city today where they will take part in the second edition of the 750,000 dollar WTA Sunfeast Open Tournament beginning on September 18.

The World number nine 'Swiss Miss', who created a sensation by becoming the youngest Wimbledon champion at the age of 15 years and nine months, flew in to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport accompanied by her mother and personal support staff.

Chaos reigned for some time outside the airport terminal as she was greeted by a posse of jostling mediapersons and a fussilade of flashbulbs as all wanted to capture the tennis pro. After sanity was restored, Hingis was driven to the hotel where again a near scuffle broke out between the police and the media contingent.

Among others who came today are World No 82 Russian Anastassia Rodionova and World No 64 Ukranian Yuliana Fedak. The rest of the brigade included Annie Keothavong, Abaigail Spears, Sabine Lisicki and Alberta Brianti. Spears is a feed-up player who is getting a direct entry into the draw of 32 as a wild card.

Hingis, however, seemed in high spirits, and watched the happenings with a smile. At the hotel, she was garlanded and tilak was applied on her forehead. The Slovakia-born player, who turns 27 on September 30, would be turning out only in the singles in the tournament.

Hingis started 2006 as an unranked player thanks to her 3-year absence from the tour. She had a strong start at the year's first grand slam reaching the quarter finals at Flinder's Park eventually losing to Kim Clijsters. It was Clijsters again who stopped Hingis in the quarters at the French Open.

If she was hoping to improve her grand slam record in 2006 - Wimbledon was a disappointment. Hingis fell to Japan's Ai Sugiyama in the 3rd round. And her US Open 2nd round loss capped off what has been an ordinary year in the grand slams giving her an 11 and 4 win-loss record in 2006 in the big four.

With her skills there's a good chance that 2007 will be a better year for the 5-time grand slam champion.

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