Design or coincidence?

Meanwhile, the real action unfolds at the Netaji Indoor Stadium tomorrow. Top seed Martina Hingis takes on Hungarian Melinda Czink, a match that promises quality tennis from both ends. Hingis though should come through against Sania8217;s conqueror at the centre court tomorrow. Indian wild card Ankita Bhambri will look to put up a decent fight against French fourth seed Aravane Rezai in their opener.

Besides Rushmi, three others who qualified to the main draw include German Sabine Lisicki who beat Sanaa Bhambri 7-6 7-4, 7-5, Taipei girl Chia-Jung Chuang who defeated another Indian Tara Iyer 7-6 7-5, 6-4 and Uzbek Iroda Tulyaganova who thrashed Indonesian Sandy Gumulya 6-1, 6-3.

In doubles, Sania and her South African partner Liezel Huber are the top seeds. They will face Archana Venkataraman and Ragini Vimal in the first round and should have a smooth ride until the semis, where they are likely to face the fourth seeded Czech-Indonesian duo of Hana Sromova and Angelique Widjaja.

India No 2 Shikha Uberoi has joined forces with Czink and will look to better her record here this time. Last year Shikha, along with younger sibling Neha, had made the finals where they lost to the Russian duo of Anastasia Myskina and Elena Likhovtseva.