June 22, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1429

LONDON, June 21: While Roger Federer and Venus Williams set their sights again on the top prize at Wimbledon, two of their aspiring counterparts head into the grasscourt slam with less lofty aspirations.

Hungarian Agnes Szavay, ranked 15th, and Russia’s Maria Kirilenko, ranked 19th, would like a win or two on a surface neither has yet adapted to.

“I didn’t play a tournament before on grass this year, I just came here (Wimbledon) to practice a week before the tournament starts,” Szavay, the only Hungarian in the top 100 world singles rankings, said.

“The facilities are not so good in Hungary, but we’re trying to do the best that we can,” added Szavay, who together with Kirilenko was promoting the international charity Habitat for Humanity.

Szavay is part of a clutch of young and highly-motivated Eastern European players making their mark on the circuit, despite starting out on limited facilities in their home countries.

In April, men’s world number three, Serbian Novak Djokovic, criticised British tennis players for being spoilt by good facilities and said that growing up in Serbia, where courts were scarce, made him work hard. “I think it doesn’t matter if you have to run up a hill in Hungary or in the UK, you have to work really hard.”—Reuters