12 December 2005

Dubai: Top-seeded Marion Bartoli of France will run into Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine in the first round of the 7th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge.

The main draw for the seventh edition of the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge was held at the Habtoor Grand Resort and Spa (HGRS) yesterday afternoon under the supervision of ITF referee, Carlos Ramos.

Others present were Arhtur De Snoo, general manager, HGRS, Hani Al Khafief, tournament director and players' representative, and Ekaterina Dzehalevich a qualifier here from Belarus. The most engrossing encounter will be between second-seeded Lourdes Lino Dominguez and fellow Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja in the lower half of the draw.

Until Saturday, the two Spaniards were playing together at the Spanish Women's Masters in Zaragoza. They arrived yesterday morning from Spain on the same flight and have signed in as the doubles pairing here.

"And it's so much up to fate to see that they have to actually play against each other in the singles," said Ramos. "They might as well have played in Zaragoza and the winner could have travelled alone to Dubai," he quipped.

Barring this interesting fact, the main draw should make a huge impact as regards the quality of the field. "We can expect some tough matches here," Ramos noted. "The eight seeded players are all from the top-100 where anyone is capable of beating the other," he added.

Tournament director Al Khafief was also hopeful of a tough competition here. "Some of these players are regular on the WTA Tours and some of them have even been playing in the Grand Slams. So we can expect a very thrilling week of tennis as always," Al Khafief added.

Results

Qualifiers: Napaporn Tongsalee bt Punam Reddy 6-3, 6-3; Kateryna Avdiyenko bt Olga Panova 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (3); Montinee Tangphong bt Thassha Vitayaviroj 6-4, 6-2; Samia Medjahdi bt Sanaa Bhambri 6-1, 6-3; Ekaterina Dzehalevich bt Maja Kambic 6-1, 6-1; Nadejda Ostrovskaya bt Caroline Schneider 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.

On Saturday: Caroline Schneider bt Irina Buryachok 3-6, 7-5, 6-4; Sandhya Nagaraj bt Ankita Bhambri 6-3, 0-1 (retd).

Fact file
Name of Tournament: 7th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge.
From: December 12-17.
Venue: Habtoor Grand Resort and Spa.
Playing time: 9 am onwards on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; 4 pm onwards on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Sponsors: HSBC, Pepsi, John Diversey, Crystal Gallery, Gulf Arena, Diamond Lease, AMC Advertising, HP, Nortel, PACC, Dunlop, Desert Springs, CBI Group, Dubai Sports Channel, Aziz Trading.

Top seeds
1. Marion Bartoli (France)
2. Lourdes Lino Dominguez (Spain)
3. Viktoriya Kutuzova (Ukraine)
4. Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine)
5. Julia Schruff (Germany)
6. Emma Laine (Finland)
7. Rika Fujiwara (Japan)
8. Jelena Kostanic (Croatia)

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