Date:07/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/07/stories/2009010754832000.htm

Sport - Tennis

Sania kicks off season at Hong Kong

Hong Kong: Sania Mirza gets an opportunity to assess her form and recovery from a career threatening wrist injury when the Indian tennis star competes in World Team Challenge tournament, kicking off here on Wednesday.

The event will also help the Indian ace prepare for the first Grand Slam of the year.

“Coming back from a career-threatening injury makes it very special to be back,” Sania said.

The event pits three top players from Europe, Russia, America and Asia-Pacific against each other.

The tournament will kick off with a match between No.1 players from the Asia-Pacific zone and top seeds Russia — Zheng Jie and Vera Zvonareva.

Sania vs. Chakvetadze

Sania as No.2 player of the team will play the second singles against her nemesis and World No. 18 Ana Chakvetadze.

As per the format of the tournament, top two players from each team will compete in singles, while the third player called the ‘Star of Tomorrow’ competes in doubles along with one of the singles players.

The four teams are placed into a semifinals draw based on seedings determined by the combined WTA ranking of the two singles players from each team.

Each semifinal tie consists of two singles matches and one doubles match.

The winners of the semifinals will advance to the JB Gold group final and the losers to the JB Silver group final. The JB Silver group also consists of two singles matches and a doubles match. The Gold group consists of four singles matches and one doubles match.

Teams: Europe: Jelena Jankovic (Srb), Agnes Szavay (Hun) and Michelle Larcher de Brito (Por).

Russia: Vera Zvonareva, Anna Chakvetadze and Alexandra Panova.

The Americas: Venus Williams (U.S.), Gisela Dulko (Arg) and Coco Vandeweghe (U.S.).

Asia Pacific: Zheng Jie (Chn), Sania Mirza (Ind) and Zhang Ling (Hkg). — PTI