Dubai: Austrian Tamira Paszek and Oman's Fatma Al Nabhani will be among the most notable entrants when qualifying starts for the Barclays Dubai Women's Open at the Dubai Tennis Stadium today.
"We are all set to go for yet another successful run of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships," Tournament Director Salah Tahlak told Gulf News yesterday.
The qualifying round matches will commence at 10.30am today and go on till Sunday morning to decide the eight players to advance to the main round of the week-long competition. Paszek has got a first round bye along with another five players.
Rightfully, Paszek ha been handed the top seeding for the qualifying rounds. The 18-year-old Austrian has a current Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Ranking of 79.
As a 16-year-old, she created a flutter in the tennis world when she won her first Tour singles title in just her third Tour main draw of career at Portoroz, Slovenia in 2007. In doing so, she also became the seventh-youngest singles titlist in Tour history.
Fresh from her exploits, Paszek continued her dominant performance on the circuit when she went down in three sets 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 to top seed and world number one Justine Henin at the 2007 Barclays Women's Open. Coming through as a qualifier, she had ousted Dubai-based Slovenian Katerina Srebotnik 7-5, 6-3.
For the record, Paszek also has fourth round appearances at the US Open and Wimbledon in 2007. "Tamira has shown us what she is capable of on the tennis court when she matched Henin two years back here," Tahlak stated.
Al Nabhani has been a sort of lone cry in the women's world of tennis in this region. Al Nabhani has been given a wild card entry for the qualifying rounds commencing today. The Omani will be the first to get things off today with her first round match against Ukraine's Viktoriya Kutuzova.
"We back our local players and it is a matter of pride to have one of our own try and break on to the big stage," Tahlak observed.
Also featuring in the qualifying round are Portuguese lass Maghali De Lattre and Marinne Giraud of Mauritiusr.
The Sharjah-based De Lattre will commence her campaign with a first round match against Germany's Julia Schruff on Court No.3 at 10.30 am today.
ORDER OF PLAY
First round qualifiers
Court 1: (Start at 10.30 am) Fatma Al Nabhani vs Viktoriya Kutuzova; Marinne Giraud vs Tatiana Poutche; (Start at 1 pm) Ines Janbakhsh vs Kristina Kucova; Raquel Kops-Jones vs Neuza Silva. Court 3: (Start at 10.30 am) Magali De Lattre vs Julia Schruff; Anna Lapushchenkova vs Alina Tseplukhova; (Start at 1 pm) Zuzana Kucova vs Vesna Manasieva; Urszula Radwanska vs Lenka Tvaroskova. Court 2: (Start at 3 pm) Astrid Besser vs Selima Sfar; Eva Hrdinova vs Andreja Klepac.
