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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, April 27: Despite losing in the final qualifying round, World No 188, Nirupama Vaidyanathan made it to the main draw of the 107,000 Croatian Ladies Championship at Bol, Croatia on Monday.
In the main draw, she plays Amelia Mauresmo of France, ranked World No 71. In case Nirupama manages to pull off a big upset in the first round, she will, most probably, take on the top seed Joannette Krueger who plays a qualifier in the first round.
Nirupama also figures in the doubles main draw action at Bol where she is pairing with Maria Fernanda Landa of Argentina ranked 164 in doubles.They are drawn against Katalin Marosi No 124, Hungary and Sylvia Plischke No 154, Austria in the first round.
En route to the singles main draw, Nirupama defeated No 219 Petra Rampre of Slovak Republic, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round and upset No 174 Eva Martincova of Czech Republic 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the second.
Last week, Nirupama, seeded fourth at the Esphino Challenger in Portugal suffered a shock upset at thehands of Frenchgirl Noelle Van Lottum in the semis. Meanwhile, Archana Venkataraman has come into the WTA rankings at No 790, after her qualifier points at Dubai.
Leander stays at No 103
According to ATP8217;s top 120 singles rank list, Leander Paes stays put at No 103. Meanwhile, in Monte Carlo, Dutchmen Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis shocked the top seeded Woddies 6-2, 6-4 to take the doubles title.
They came back from a set down to beat Paes and Bhupathi in the semi-finals. With this win, Eltingh/ Haarhuis get about 470 points and are expected to replace the Indian duo as the world8217;s second best team. Paes and Bhupathi return to India now. While Bhupathi will be here for less than a week before returning to Europe, Paes will stay in Calcutta for about 10 days before moving on to Rome for the Italian Open starting on May 11.
