Sports India

Kolkata, September 17: The Indian presence at the Sunfeast Open will only get more pronounced with either Isha Lakhani or Ankita Bhambri becoming the fifth player of Indian descent to compete in the singles main draw. Isha and Ankita open qualifying proceedings on Centre Court tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the main draw was announced today. Russian top seed Anastasia Myskina will face Romanian Edina Gallovits in the opening round. In the bottom half, third seed Sania Mirza is pitted against a qualifier and the world No 34 will not meet Russian Elena Likhovtseva before the semi-finals. The Russian second seed is slated to open her campaign against Ukrainian Yuliana Fedak. However, in the most interesting all-Indian first round encounter, Neha Uberoi takes on Sunitha Rao, the latter all geared up to make the most of the lucky entry into the main draw. The older Uberoi sibling, Shikha, will face Japanese Ryoko Fuda, with whom she had a hitting session on Thursday.

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Doubles world No 1 and wild card entrant Virginia Ruano Pascual would have ideally hoped for a more favourable draw than launch her campaign against fellow Spaniard and sixth seed Laura Pous Tio. Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn faces Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson in her opening match.

The draw

Anastasia Myskina (1, Rus) Vs Edina Gallovits (Rom), Galina Voskoboeva (Rus) Vs Victoria Azarenka (Blr), Shikha Uberoi (Ind) Vs Ryoko Fuda (Jpn), Arantxa Parra Santonja (Esp) Vs Rika Fujiwara (8, Jpn), Maria Elena Camerin (4, Ita) Vs Q, Nicole Pratt (Aus) Vs Sybille Bammer (Aut), Kaia Kanepi (Est) Vs Q, Virginia Ruano Pascual (WC, Esp) Vs Laura Pous Tio (6, Esp), Karolina Sprem (7, Cro) Vs Evie Dominikovic (Aus), Villmarie Castellvi (Pur), Vs Emmanuelle Gagliardi (Sui), Ma Emilia Salerni (Arg) Vs Melinda Czink (Hun), Sania Mirza (3, Ind) Vs Q, Antonella Serra Zanetti (5, Ita) Vs Q, Sofia Arvidsson (Swe) Vs Tamarine Tanasugarn (Tha), Neha Uberoi (WC, Ind) Vs Sunitha Rao (USA), Yuliana Fedak (Ukr) Vs Elena Likhovtseva (2 WC, Rus).