Sania to pair with Mara Santangelo for doubles

Bangalore, Feb 12 (UNI) Sania Mirza will, along with Mara Santangelo of Italy, defend her doubles title in the 175,000 Dollar Sony Ericsson International WTA Tennis Tournament, beginning at KSLTA stadium here from tomorrow.

The duo, partnering for the first time, were seeded second in this tournament.

Sania, ranked 24 in doubles, had won the title last year, pairing with Liezal Huber of South Africa. Mara is ranked 57 in the doubles.

The two would have a soft start as they meet lesser ranked Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbeikistan and Tatiana Poutchek of Bulgaria in their first encounter.

Sania, partnering with Huber, had won thrice -- in Bangalore and Kolkata in 2006 and Hyderabad during 2004, and the pair were also the finalists in the Amelia Island tournament.

The Indian tennis sensation, who arrived here last night, had more than two hours of practice today under the guidance of her father and coach Imran Mirza, with mother Naseema closely watching.

In the singles, wild card entrants of host country, Tara Iyer and National Champion Shikha Uberoi would be clashing with Cibulkova Dominika of Slovakia and Shvedova Yaroslava of Russia respectively in their first round match tomorrow.

UNI