August 08, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 23, 1428

KARACHI, Aug 7: An unprecedented number of entries received by the organisers for two back-to-back ITF world ranking boys and girls’ juniors’ U-18 tennis championships, heralds a new aura for sport. The tournaments will run in the city from Aug 20 to Sept 2.

“Altogether, the number of players who have entered the competition including on site alternates goes to 139,” declared tournament director, Khalid Rehmani.

As many as 24 players have been directly placed in the main draw for boys and 28 in the qualifying round in addition to 63 on site alternates who will go through pre qualifiers for first leg on Aug 17.

Top four players will step into two-day qualifying round and would be joined by 28 in the 32-man draw. In the next phase eight players (quarter-finalists) will move to main draw to be joined by 24 seeded players.

Same procedure will be followed in the second leg whose pre qualifying round are slated to take place on Aug 24. The qualifying round will be held on Aug 25 and 26 while the main round commences from Aug 27.

The details of the event which is taking place in the city after three years were unfolded at a press briefing on Tuesday. Prominent among others who were present on the occasion were chairman organising committee, Khwaja Saeed Hai, sports convener, Karachi Club, Hanif Memon and tennis secretary KC, Altaf Hussain.

The events to take place in the two legs are boys and girls U-18 singles and doubles.

Pavel Liska of Czech Republic who is ranked 301 in the world in U-18 category has been top seeded in boys. He is followed by Shiva Sangwan (India), Chandril Sood (India) and Tanvir Ashiq (Pakistan).

India’s Inayat Khosla was top seed in girls to be followed by compatriot Soniya Dayal and Pakistan’s Sara Mehboob.

The STA secretary disclosed that nine home players were among 24 who have been directly placed in the boys’ main draw. Besides Tanvir, others are Yasir Khan, Khurram Nazeer, Omer Babar, Nasir Mushtaq, M. Waqas, M. Ahmed Aslam, Zuhair Raza and Abbas Raza.

The seven Pakistani girls who will be vying for honours besides Sara are Anoosha Aslam, Mehreen Izhar, Natasha Afridi, Ushna Sohail, Mehak Khokhar and Eman Malik.

He said the first leg has been sponsored by an NGO Community Foundation while businessman Nasir Dawood, a former local player, has sponsored the second leg in memory of his parents.