Nicha Lertpitaksinchai and Peangtarn Plipuech have been granted a wild card into the main draw doubles at the 2013 PTT Pattaya Open, whilst Noppawan Lertcheewakarn and Kotcha Nattawadee have been given wild cards into the qualifying draw of the singles tournament, which will be held at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Pattaya from 27 January – 3 February.
Noppawan and Kotcha will face some tough competition in the qualifying draw of the tournament which includes many well-known players including Tatjana Malek of Germany, Taiwan’s Yung-Jan Chan, Anastasia Rodionova of Australia, Anne Keothavong of the UK and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the USA. The qualifying competition at Pattaya this year is one of the strongest ever with the cut-off in the draw at below 200.
PTT Pattaya Open tournament director Geoffrey Rowe (right) greets Russia’s Maria Kirilenko at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. Kirilenko flew in this week from Melbourne where she had been taking part in the Australian Open tennis championships.
The 16-draw qualifying competition starts on Sunday 27 January with the first round of matches; the final round of 4 qualifying matches will be played on Monday 28 January. A total of 4 qualifiers will join the main draw of the tournament which starts on 28 January.
Nicha and Peangtarn will find it equally tough in the doubles competition this year, with many doubles specialists flying in to join the competition. India’s Sania Mirza and Anastasia Rodionova from Australia, the reigning champions, and the Chan sisters from Taiwan, last year’s runners-up, will be heading the field.
Disappointing news for fans is that Vera Zvonareva and Laura Robson have had to withdraw from the tournament due to injuries.
Zvonareva has still not recovered from the injury which kept her out of the Australian Open, whilst Robson sustained a left shoulder injury during her match against Petra Kvitova at the Australian Open.
For those fans unable to make it to Pattaya, Siam Keelah TV will broadcast matches from Monday 28 January, whilst the semi-finals and final can be seen on NBT, T-Sports and STAR/ESPN in Thailand. The tournament will be broadcast “live” internationally across Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Tickets for the PTT Pattaya Open are on sale at 300, 500, 800 and 1,200 baht.
For more information on the tournament and tickets, please contact Pentangle Promotions Co., Ltd at Tel: 02-3113414/5 website www.pentanglepromotions.com or at Thaiticketmajor on 02-262-3456, website www.thaiticketmajor.com.
