13 October 2003

Last year's semifinalist Camille Pin of France was one step away from making into the main draw of the sixth Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge with an emphatic 6-0, 6-0 mauling of Kirstin Freye in the second day of qualifiers yesterday.

Pin, who fell to eventual champion Angelique Widjaja in the semifinal last year, was her cool, aggressive self as she demolished her German opponent in under 40 minutes.

"There was no way I was going to allow her even a slight gap to stage a comeback," Pin smiled after her match. "She can be a tough opponent as she has a huge serve. So my aim was to keep my concentration. It was more a matter of the mind."

Earlier, Khalaf Al Habtoor, chairman of the Khalaf Group conducted the draw for the tournament in the presence of Jane Harvey, ITF Circuit Manager, Hani El Khafief, tournament director and some of the players.

"It's a well balanced draw which will assure the fans of some exciting matches," said El Khafief.

The upper half of thedraw could see a possible match-up between defending champion Widjaja and recent Japan Open runner-up, Aniko Kapros in the quarterfinals.

Should either of them get past this hurdle, they could end up facing top seed Emmanuelle Gagliardi in the last four stage of the competition.

"The stage is set and we are all ready to roll," added El Khafief. Morocco's Bahia Mouhtassine ended up in the Rashid Hospital yesterday afternoon following a relapse of suspected Mediteranean Fever.

She was admitted and kept under observation for a couple of hours. Mouhtassine has been pitted in the lower half of the main draw to play France's Severine Beltrame in her opening round match.

"However, I doubt that will be anytime before Wednesday as she will need time to recover sufficiently," said El Khafief.

Results
Qualifiers: Zsofia Gubacsi bt Sandra Klemenschits 6-3, 7-5; Aurelia Miseviciute bt Daniella Klemenschits 6-0, 6-3; Camille Pin bt Kirstin Freye 6-0, 6-0; Angelika Roesch bt Caroline Schneider 6-3, 6-3; Gulnara Fattakhetdinova bt Katerina Bondarenko 7-6, 6-2; Evgenia Linetskaya bt Liana Balaci 6-2, 6-2; Mervana Jugic-Salkic bt Olena Antypina 7-6, 6-3; Lina Stanciute bt Maria Penkova 6-4, 6-3.

Order of Play:
(Centre Court) 4 pm: Zsofia Gubacsi vs Lina Stanciute; Camille Pin vs Gulnara Fattakhetdinova; Seda Noorlander vs Kyra Nagy; Martina Sucha vs Ivana Abramovic.

(Court 1) 4 pm: Mervana Jugic-Salkic vs Aurelija Miseviciute; Angelika Roesch vs Eugenia Linetskaya; Barbara Rittner vs Kelly Liggan; Nadejda Ostrovskaya vs Eva Fislova.

Note: All matches will have a start of 4 pm, according to the organisers.

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