"Bangalore Open: Easy draw for Sania

Defending champion Sania Mirza will have a relatively easy outing in the first round against world number 104 Martina Muller of Germany as the Bangalore Open, a USD 175,000 WTA Tier-III event, takes off tomorrow.

The 19-year-old and the world number 32, who won the Tier-IV event held at her hometown of Hyderabad last year, is expected to cross the first hurdle without much difficulty at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association courts.

The host nation’s Ankita Bhambri, ranked 361 in the world, and Rushmi Chakravarty (370), both wild card entrants, are pitted against strong opponents as per the draw in the the Sony Ericsson WTA Tier III event.

Ankita is clashing with Kaia Kanepi (94) of Estonia, who was a semi-finalist at the Sunfeast Tier III WTA event at Kolkata in September last year.

Rushmi meets Hungary’s Melinda Czink (119), who had reached the quarter-final at the Kolkata event beating Sania.

The third Indian wild-card entry in the main draw, Isha Lakhani (482) would fight it out with a qualifier to secure a second round berth.

The winner takes home USD 28,000 and collects 120 points.

The event has failed to generate any pre-tournament excitement and a build-up appears to be glaringly missing, in sharp contrast to last year’s spectacle at Hyderabad that evoked considerable interest.

Organisers Globosport, the sports management company set up by doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi, are expecting Sania to pull in the crowds."