Mahesh beats Sania in friendly contest

Sports News, Bangalore, Traffic stalled and hundreds of office goers stopped to take a look as India's tennis superstars Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza Monday took to the streets of Bangalore for a friendly contest.

The 30-minute game, a promotional build-up to the Sunfeast Open 2005 in Kolkata from Sep 19-25, was held near the Vidhan Soudha, the stately secretariat in the heart of the city, during peak office hour.

Vehicular movement came to a standstill as Mahesh and Sania battled at the makeshift court to demonstrate their powerful serves, volleys and rallies.

The friendly encounter saw Mahesh beat Sania 6-1 in the only set they played. However, in response to the cheering spectators asking for more, they agreed to play another set, which ended in a tie-break.

"Though the Sunfeast Open tournament is being played in Kolkata, we wanted to popularise tennis across the country in a novel way. Since Bangalore is the home of Sunfeast (a division of ITC Ltd) and Globosport, the sports management firm set up by me, we thought of launching the campaign from here," Mahesh told reporters after the game.The weeklong Sunfeast Open will see in action world's leading women tennis players and new generation Indian stars like Sania and Shikha Uberoi. As part of the Tier III Women Tennis Association (WTA) Tour championships, the event will be held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata, with a total prize money of $170,000.

"We will announce the list of participants six weeks before the tournament begins. The response for entries has been good so far. Besides Sania and Shikha, the event will feature some of the leading players in the international circuit," Mahesh disclosed.

Indo-Asian News Service