NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Rediff Shopping

Shop & gift from thousands of products!   Books     Music       Apparel   Jewellery   Flowers   More..      Safe Shopping

8 wild cards for Asians

The International Tennis Federation's Olympic Committee announced on Thursday its selection of wild cards for the 2000 Olympic tennis event. Asian tennis players got a total of eight - - two in the men's singles, four in the women's singles, one in the men's doubles and three in the women's doubles.

The wild cards are chosen on the basis of international computer rankings and geographic diversity.

Besides Leander Paes, another Asian who has been given a place in the 64-player draw is Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan.

Korea's Yong Il Yoon and Hyung Taik Lee received wild cards for the doubles.

In both men’s and women’s doubles, there are eight ITF wild card places.

In the women’s singles event, due to the withdrawal of Magdalena Grzybowska (POL), Tina Pisnik (SLO) got a direct acceptance and is the 48th player in the women’s singles draw.

The four Asian women singles players who received wild cards are Na Li of China, Shinobu Asagoe of Japan, Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan and Wynne Prakusya of Indonesia.

Former Indonesian number one Yayuk Basuki has also been given a wild card in the doubles with Wynne Prakusya.

The two other doubles places have been given to Koreans Yoon Jeong Cho and Sung Hee Park and the Chinese Taipei pair of Janet Lee and Tzu Ting Weng.

The addition of the wild cards brings the number of countries taking part in the Olympic tennis event to 53.

“One of the aims of the ITF was to strike a balance between top quality competitors and the desire to have a more international field at the Olympic tennis event,” said ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti.

"We think that we have accomplished this aim and are particularly pleased we have been able to give wild cards to a number of top young players who are the future of the game.”

The complete list of ITF / Wild card places:

Men's Singles
COUNTRY	FIRST NAME	SURNAME
CANADA	SEBASTIEN	LAREAU
COSTA RICA	JUAN ANTONIO	MARIN
DENMARK	KRISTIAN	PLESS
HUNGARY	ATTILA	SAVOLT
INDIA	LEANDER	PAES
THAILAND	PARADORN	SRICHAPHAN
TRIPARTITE SELECTIONS:
BOLIVIA	JOSE	ANTELO
BENIN	CHRISTOPHE	POGNON
Men's doubles
COUNTRY	FIRST NAME	SURNAME
BELARUS	MAX	MIRNYI
BELARUS	VLADIMIR	VOLTCHKOV
CHILE	MARCELO	RIOS
CHILE	NICOLAS	MASSU
CROATIA	GORAN	IVANISEVIC
CROATIA	MARIO	ANCIC
ECUADOR	NICOLAS	LAPENTTI
ECUADOR	GIOVANNI	LAPENTTI
HUNGARY	ATTILA	SAVOLT
HUNGARY	GABOR	KOVES
KOREA	YONG-IL	YOON
KOREA	HYUNG-TAIK	LEE
UKRAINE	ANDREI	MEDVEDEV
UKRAINE	OREST	TERESHCHUK
VENEZUELA	JIMY	SZYMANSKI
VENEZUELA	JOSE	DE ARMAS
Women's singles
COUNTRY	FIRST NAME	SURNAME
ARGENTINA	MARIA EMILIA	SALERNI
AUSTRALIA	ALICIA	MOLIK
CHINA	NA	LI
CROATIA	IVA	MAJOLI
GREECE	ELENI	DANILIDOU
HUNGARY	KATALIN	MAROSI
JAPAN	SHINOBU	ASAGOE
NETHERLANDS	AMANDA	HOPMANS
PARAGUAY	ROSSANA	DE LOS RIOS
ROMANIA	CATALINA	CRISTEA
SLOVENIA	KATARINA	SREBOTNIK
SWITZERLAND	MIROSLAVA	VAVRINEC
UZBEKISTAN	IRODA	TULYAGANOVA
VENEZUELA	MARIA ALEJANDRA	VENTO
SWITZERLAND	MIROSLAVA	VAVRINEC
TRIPARTITE SELECTIONS:
HAITI	NEYSSA	ETIENNE
INDONESIA	WYNNE	PRAKUSYA
Women's doubles
COUNTRY	FIRST NAME	SURNAME
CHINESE TAIPEI	JANET	LEE
CHINESE TAIPEI	TZU-TING	WENG
COLOMBIA	FABIOLA	ZULUAGA
COLOMBIA	MARIANA	MESA
CROATIA	IVA	MAJOLI
CROATIA	SILVIJA	TALAJA
CZECH REPUBLIC	DANIELA	BEDANOVA
CZECH REPUBLIC	KVETOSLAVA	HRDLICKOVA
INDONESIA	YAYUK	BASUKI
INDONESIA	WYNNE	PRAKUSYA
KOREA	YOON-JEONG	CHO
KOREA	SUNG-HEE	PARK
SLOVENIA	KATARINA	SREBOTNIK
SLOVENIA	TINA	KRIZAN
VENEZUELA	MARCIA	VENTO
VENEZUELA	MILAGROS	SEQUERA