March 15, 2006	Wednesday	Safar 14, 1427

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LAHORE, March 14: Leading Pakistani and Indian stars will battle for honours in the Open tennis championship to be played at Bagh-i-Jinnah courts from March 20 to 26, former Davis Cupper and current Pakistan team coach, Rashid Malik announced on Tuesday.

Rashid who has been appointed director of the event claimed that prize money of Rs.700,000 — the biggest ever to be offered in the country — will be at stake.

The competitions to be held are in the category of men’s singles, doubles, ladies singles, girls U-17 singles, boys U-17 singles, veteran Over-40 doubles and veteran Over-50 doubles.

So far over 100 entries had been received by the PTF, he said. The Indian players to compete are Arindham Datta, Ashutosh Singh and Vinod Kumar.

Prominent Pakistani stars who have entered are Aqeel Khan, Nomi Qamar, Asim Shafique, Jalil Khan, Sara Mehboob, Anuosha Aslam, Quartul Ain, Saba Aziz, Natasha Afridi, Mehak Khokhar and Zainab Khan. Rashid said that the tournament would also provide an ideal opportunity to the Davis Cup team to get match practice before meeting India in Mumbai in the Group-I tie.