Sports India

Sunfeast announces winners of Sunfeast Open Ball Boy / Ball Girl Contest

Kolkata, September 17, 2005: ITC Foods today unveiled a novel school student-inspired trophy for the upcoming Sunfeast Open 2005. The trophy portrays the spirit and nature of the tournament and draws its inspiration from the award winning design created by Ipsita Saha of St. John’s Diocesan High School. Ipsita was recently announced the winner of the Sunfeast Open 2005 Trophy Design Competition, run by Sunfeast across schools in Kolkata.

The 300 mm tall trophy has a top portion carved in radiant crystal with a glittering rhodium plated pedestal. The design created by Ipsita Saha has been etched inside the crystal crown through a specialized etching process executed magnificently by a professional crystal etching house from Israel.

On the occasion, Sunfeast also announced the winners of the Sunfeast Open Ball Boy / Ball Girl Contest. The four lucky kids – Advetya from Hyderabad, Magali Vaz from Mumbai, Shriya Arora from Delhi and Saurabh Choradiya from Bangalore – will now have a chance to be the ball boys and ball girls in a match to be played on center court during the tournament and rub shoulders with the likes of international tennis stars – Sania Mirza, Anastasia Myskina and others.

With the aim to connect with one of the key audiences – children, Sunfeast had undertaken several exciting initiatives by offering unique participating opportunities for the children at the Sunfeast Open 2005. For the first time ever in the history of Indian sports school children were involved to such an extent with a global level tournament like the Sunfeast Open 2005.

The Sunfeast Open Ball Boy / Ball Girl Contest organised in association with Disney Channel was another unique endeavor to popularize tennis and create ownership for the Sunfeast Open 2005 amongst the tennis loving children in the country.

In its endeavour to take the game and the tournament closer to audiences, Sunfeast has planned an exciting horse-driven chariot roadshow with international tennis stars presenting a reminiscent of the old world charm of Kolkata. The roadshow will start at 4.30 p.m. tomorrow and go along the following route:

- Starts from Netaji indoor Stadium at 4.30 p.m. and proceeds towards Eden Gardens (Maidan Side)
- From Eden Gardens the horse-driven chariot will go to Princep Ghat and halt briefly for media interactions.
- The Horse-driven chariot with the international tennis stars will thereafter return to Netaji Indoor Stadium.

About the Sunfeast Open

Touted as South Asia’s biggest sporting spectacle, Sunfeast Open 2005 is Tier III WTA (Women Tennis Association) event with prize money of US$ 170,000. It will be played at Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata from September 19-25, 2005. The Sunfeast Open 2005, Kolkata is a new event that is being added for the first time to the WTA Tour championships, and will feature some of the world’s leading players as well the new generation of Indian stars led by Sania Mirza and Shikha Uberoi. The tournament is being brought to Kolkata by Globosport, the sports management company owned by Mahesh Bhupathi, under the auspices of the Government of West Bengal. With the explosion of talent in women’s tennis in India, the Sunfeast Open 2005 – Kolkata will allow Indians to see a new generation of Indian women take on the best in the world in their own backyard.