Taiwanese to play in Pattaya
[TENNIS] Taiwanese sensations Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung, who made tennis fans sit up and take notice of them on their way to the doubles final at the Australian Open, hope to maintain their momentum at the US$170,000 Pattaya Women's Open to be held at the Dusit Resort from February 3-11.
Chan and Chuang took the tennis world by storm when they dethroned defending champions Yan Zi and Zheng Jie of China in the semi-finals before losing 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 in the final to Clara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of South Africa. Chan, 19, is now No 83 in the world and was once ranked as high as No 2 in the junior ranking in 2004. In fact she was once crowned the international junior champion in this beach city when she was just 14 years old. The Pattaya tournament has attracted entries from over 100 players from 31 countries. It has long been acknowledged as one of the most picturesque venues on the tour and has consistently drawn a large number of entries. This year players are coming from France, Russia, Italy, Ukraine, Austria, Columbia, Croatia, China, Spain, Argentina, USA, India, Slovakia, Taiwan, Hungary, Israel, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Australia, Romania, Slovenia, Denmark, Japan, Kazakhstan, Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Indonesia, South Africa and Thailand. Asian stars include Chinese Olympic gold medallists Sun Tiantian and Li Ting, the 2006 doubles champions at Pattaya, India's Sania Mirza and Japan's Aiko Nakamura. The top seeds at the tournament are Marion Bartoli, and Maria Kirilenko, the new Russian pin-up girl. The qualifying rounds will take place on February 3 and 4, when admission is free. Tickets for the main tournament from February 5-8 are priced at Bt300 and for the final three days from February 9-11, the tickets are Bt300, 500 and 1,000. For further information, contact Pentangle Promotions Co Ltd: Tel: 02-3823491-3 or visit the website at www.pentanglepromotions.com
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