Date:18/01/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011802731900.htm

Sport - Tennis

ITF Gr. III tourney from today

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA JAN. 17. Promising an action-packed week of tennis, the ITF junior circuit carnival has hit the city brining with it a plethora of foreign participants and the best juniors of the country.

The main draw of Grade III tournament will start on Monday while the qualifiers get underway at the Dakshin Kalikata Sanshad clay courts here on Saturday.

The biggest draw prior to the meet, which has moved up a grade this year, was the Indian Davis Cup captain Ramesh Krishnan, who is here escorting his daughter, Gayatri, to her first ITF meet.

The sparse gathering at the club was witness to the grand sight of a legendary player training with his daughter in the afternoon prior to her qualifying round match.

As a first step in trying to instil the spirit of sportsmanship, that he championed so passionately, Ramesh preferred to have the 13-year-old Gayatri go through the qualifiers though there were all the opportunities of getting her name in the wild card list.

India's Chatwinder Singh, with the highest ITF ranking of 173 among the entries, is the top draw in the boys' section. In the girls' section, Monitnee Tangphong of Thailand, with a ranking of 152, is the top seed ahead of India's Sanaa Bhambri, ranked 182.

Other notable Indians in the fray are Navdeep Singh, Rupesh Roy, Vikas Punna, V.M. Ranjeet, Jitin Bishnoi in the boys section and Krushmi Chheda, Nidhi Shah, S. Punam Reddy, Madura Ranganathan, S. Marutha Devi in the girls draw.

The tournament will have a draw of 32 for the boys' and girls' singles events while the doubles events will be draws of 16. Eight players will make it for the singles event through the qualifiers. The finals will be played on January 25.