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Tennis
World doubles from Jan. 29
By Our Special Correspondent
BANGALORE, JAN. 15. The World doubles is back. The Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association on Tuesday formally declared it will stage the much delayed and at one time cancelled event, at the KSLTA Stadium here from January 29 to February 2.
Announcing this at a media briefing here, Mr. C.S. Sunder Raju, who along with the tournament Director, Krishna Bhupathi and other KSLTA officials, had worked hard to have the event staged, said ``we got the final confirmation from the ATP CEO Mark Miles, at 3 a.m. this morning. While I am overjoyed at this turn of event, I feel that an enormous responsibility is thrust on the KSLTA and we will live up to the expectations.''
The World doubles event was last held here between December 13 to 17 in 2000 under a two-year contract that KSLTA had with ATP. However it suffered a series of setbacks in 2001. The first blow was the Government's ban on sponsorship by tobacco firms in April, the last event being bankrolled by ITC under its brand name Gold Flake. Despite that, the organisers strived hard to put up the act, and had the event scheduled for October 7 to 11, 2001, but that too went up in smoke after the terrorist strike on September 11 in the United States. Security concerns forced ATP and the KSLTA to rethink and drop the event. A formal cancellation then followed.
However, Sunder Raju and his men kept working at the possibility of having the championship. ``The last fortnight had been hectic and we had to convince the tournament directors of other major ATP events and address the security concerns of the players to get this approval. The whole credit for pulling it off, goes to Vijay Amritraj, who is the true ambassador of sports. His unstinted efforts has achieved this,'' said a grateful Sunder Raju.
The $400,0000 championship will boast a better field than the last one. With the exception of World No. 1 pair, Todd Woodbridge (Australia) and Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) and No.3 pair of Jiri Novak and P. Rikil of Czech Republic, the rest have confirmed their entries.
As per the confirmation received by the organisers, the following pairs will vie for the honours. Don Johnson and Jared Palmer (USA), Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes (India), Wayne Black and K. Ullett (Zimbabwe), Byran. B and Byran. M (USA), P. Pala and Pavel Vizner (Czech Republic), Mark Knowles and Brian McPhie (USA), Jeff Tarango (USA) and Michael Hill (Australia), Rick Leach (USA) and E. Ferreira (SA).
Mr. Sunder Raju said that the exact schedule of the ties in round robin and knock out basis will be worked out. The ties are expected to start around 4 p.m. daily and late evening matches will be played under floodlights.
The KSLTA will also formally announce the title sponsors in a few days and discussions are still on for TV rights. The Chief Minister, and the President of the KSLTA, Mr.S.M. Krishna thanked ATP for granting the event. ``The chance to host one of the biggest tournament in the world is really a wonderful experience for all of us,'' he said in a message.
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