Keen contest on cards in 5th NECC-ITF women's tennis

Pune, Nov 3 (UNI) The cream of Indian women along with six foreigners figure in the main draw in the sixth edition of the 10,000 dollar NECC-ITF tennis championship which gets underway at the synthetic courts of Deccan Gymkhana here from tomorrow.

The championship, sponsored for the sixth consecutive year by the National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC), offers a total prize money of 10,000 dollar (approx Rs 450,000). It is being held under the auspices of the International Tennis federation (ITF), the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA).

Briefing reporters here today, MSLTA joint secretary Anand Tulpule, who is also the tournament director, said top-rung Indian women namely 360th-ranked Ankita Bhambri, 382-ranked Isha Lakhani, 459-ranked Rushmi Chakravarthi, 631-ranked Megha Vakaria, 657-ranked Sanaa Bhambri, along with 512-ranked Amina Rakhim of Kazakhistan and 604-ranked Polunina of Ukraine, have confirmed their entries for the event.

The competition is expected to be fierce considering the closeness of the ranking among the leading Indian stalwarts and the balanced mix of foreign talent in the grid of 32 players (20 from main draw, 8 qualifiers and 4 wild carders), Tulpule pointed out.

Junior national champion Rashmi Teltumbde and promising Sagarika Phadke of Maharashtra and other junior Madhura Ranganathan of Coimbatore and Sanjana Kapoor of Delhi have been given the wild cards for the main draw, Tulpule added.

Prominent among the Indian players figuring in the main draw are former national champion Sonal Phadke, Liza Pereira, Archana Venkataraman and juniors Tara Iyer, Prerana-Mythri Appineni, the tournament director said.

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