Aviation Cup winner Hana Sromova leads wild cards

The Czech Republic's Hana Sromova will be leading a pack of three wild cards when qualifying starts tomorrow for the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open.

Sromova will take her rightful place as one of three wild cards after having won the women's crown at last month's Fono Nokia ITF Dubai Aviation Cup.

"Sromova gets an automatic entry for the qualifying rounds," disclosed Salah Tahlak, the tournament director for the fortnight long Dubai Tennis Championship.

The Aviation Cup, upgraded this year as a $10,000 event on the ITF Women's Circuit, offered a spot in the qualifying rounds at the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open to the singles winner.

Sromova battled over three sets to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Russian Gulnara Fattakhetdinova in the Aviation Cup final held on January 12.

"I like this place and I want to accept the qualifying wild card," Sromova had told Gulf News then.

Joining Sromova on the wild cards' list for the qualifiers this year will be Bianca Boniface and Vanessa Henke.

The qualifying round matches will start from tomorrow morning.

"Players have already started arriving for the qualifiers, while those in the main draw will start coming in by Sunday," disclosed Tahlak.

Dubai Duty Free, organisers and owners of this tournament, have drastically cut down ticket prices for the two-week long Dubai Tennis Championship.

"Our tickets were never expensive. And compared to other events held in Dubai or tournaments on the WTA and ATP Tours, tickets for the Dubai competition are the cheapest," Tahlak said.

Ticket holders will be allowed free seating in the grand stands on a first come, first served basis.

"Basically, we don't see any reason why tennis fans should not be coming for this tournament," Tahlak stated.

After two days of qualifying rounds starting tomorrow, the main action will take off from 2 pm on Monday.

Fan Club members will be allowed free entry on the opening days of both competitions.