Refurbished court awaits arrival of Serena Williams

Bangalore, Feb 6 (UNI) A refurbished KSLTA court and enthusiastic tennis crowd awaits the arrival of Australian Open winner Serena Williams who will be seen in action in the US Dollar 175,000 dollar Sony Ericsson Bangalore Open Championship from February 12.

The Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) stadium was given a facelift, with the court being painted violet and the surrounding area green. ''The colour was selected from the offer made by WTA for international matches,'' Tournament Organising Committee Chairman and KSLTA Secretary Sunder Raju told newspersons here today.

He said the eight-time Grand Slam winner Serena was expected to arrive here on February 10. Making a great comeback in the recently-concluded Australian Open after a string of injuries last year, Serena would be playing her first WTA tournament in India. The former World No.1, who rose to 14th rank from 81 after winning Australian Open, is expected to climb further in the WTA rankings.

Mr Ram announced that promising Indian junior player Tara Iyer had been given a wild card for the event. Shikha Uberoi was earlier granted wild card for the event.

Tara had represented India in the Junior Federation Cup for two years and qualified for the final playoffs in Europe both times.

Ranked 45th in ITF Juniors, she held the No.1 ranking in under-18 in India. The 19-year-old Tara reached the finals of two ITF Juniors grade one tournaments and the quarterfinals of grade A in both singles and doubles. She had participated in junior grand slams - US Open, French Open and Wimbledon.

To a question, Mr Raju said the host country might get one more wild card if WTA failed to select a player from the Gold/Silver list.

He said that besides Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza, 22 leading international tennis players from across the world would participate in the tournament, qualifying rounds of which would begin on February 10.

Mr Raju said Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy would pick the main draw on the portals of Vidhana Soudha, the State Secretariat, on February 10.

He said there was overwhelming response for tickets and more than 40,000 tennis lovers are expected to watch the tournament.

UNI