Russia, Asia to do battle in KL

2009/10/26

Ajitpal Singh

RUSSIAN tennis stars Elena Dementieva and Maria Kirilenko will take on Zheng Jie of China and Sania Mirza of India in a "Russia v Asia" clash at Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam on Dec 19-20.

The tentative format of play is one doubles on the first day and two singles matches the next day.

This is the first time WTA Tour players will play an exhibition in Malaysia as the previous two years featured ATP stars.

World No 5 Elena is a seasoned campaigner on the tour, having won 16 WTA titles and also the gold medal in last year's Beijing Olympics while Maria, who was World No 18 last year, is a rising star.

Zheng Jie's prowess is in doubles and her most memorable year was in 2006 when she and Yan Zi won two Grand Slam titles (Australian Open and Wimbledon).

This year, she created history by becoming the first China player to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals.

Russia's Anna Kournikova is the ambassador for the event.

Sania, who won the mixed doubles gold with Leander Paes in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, has won one singles and eight doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

The exhibition is also a nice introduction to the Malaysian Open Classic, a new event on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour calendar, to be hosted in Kuala Lumpur next February.

Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen will launch the Russia v Asia match at the Pavilion in Kuala Lumpur today and joining her will be former star Anna Kournikova, the ambassador of the event.