Pune, December 10 : Only four Indian wildcards Ashvarya Shrivastava , Sharmada Balu, Prarthana Thombare, and Smriti Joon find a place in the main draw at the LIC $10,000 Women’s ITF Tennis Championships which will be played and organized by the MSLTA School of tennis at the Mhalunge Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune from December 10 to 17.
According to Sunder Iyer, Treasurer of MSLTA and the Tournament Director, players from over 16 countries have confirmed their participation for the event which is being sponsored by public sector giants Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for the first time. "We are glad to be associated with an international women's event and support the cause of women empowerment through sports", said an official of LIC .
We have received a exceptionally high cut off for the event , the reason being negligible women's events in the European and Asian continents , because of the weather conditions there, explained Iyer. The event is the second in the swing after Solapur and will be followed by the $25000 event at Deccan Gymkhana.
Wimbledon junior finalist last year Sachie Ishizu of Japan ranked 223 , Nicha Lertpitaksinchai ranked 312 Peangtarn Plipuech ranked 418 both of Thailand, French women Celine Cattaneo ranked 419 , winner of the Solapur leg Ukrainian Anna Shkudun ranked 444 , Slovakian Anja Prislan ranked 474, Asia's top junior Uzbekistan's Sabina Sharipova ranked 488 and Turkey's Melis Sezer ranked 499 will be some of the players who will be seen in action at the event, added Deshmukh
“It will be a wonderful opportunity to watch country’s top players in action apart from the foreigners , for the tennis fans and sports lovers . " We can expect more Indian participation into the main draw when the qualifying rounds end, he added”.
The main draws will start from 12th December The semifinals and finals to be held on16th and the 17th December City's international official Sheetal Iyer has been designated as the ITF supervisor of the event, while city's white badge umpires Shriram Gokhale , Amit Deshpande, Leena Nageshkar and Thailand's S.Wanawit have been nominated as the umpires for the event.
The Winner will get 18 WTA points and $1568 , the runners up will get 10 WTA points and $980 , the Semifinalist will get 6 WTA points and $490 the Quarterfinalist will make 2 points and $245 while the players making the last 16 will get 1 WTA point and $ 196 , the players in the main draw will get $98 only and no points. The total prize money for singles is $ 7644 .
The doubles total prize money of $2156 will have a break up of - winners will get 18 WTA points and $637 , while the runners up will get 10 WTA points and $343, the semifinalist will get 6 WTA points and $196 , while the quarterfinalists will get $98, and round of 16 will get $49.
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