With none of the top teams in the two continents turning up, India start as clear favourites in the tennis competition of the Afro-Asian Games which begins on Saturday.
Tennis suffered the same fate as football, with teams like Thailand, Japan, South Africa, Korea and Uzbekistan failing to turn up, forcing the officials to delay the draw till this afternoon with the hope of receiving some last-minute entries.
In fact, till the draw was made no official information was available about the teams taking part.
Only five countries, including the hosts, are in the fray - - four for the men's events and five for the women's. Added to that all the foreign players in the fray are ranked way below the Indians.
Lack of ATP/WTA points and prize-money seems to be the reason for the absence of big names.
India, The Philippines, Sri Lanka and Nigeria figure in the men's section, while Nigeria, Zimbabwe, The Phillipines and Indonesia besides the hosts make up the draw in the women's section.
India will look forward to Davis Cuppers Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj, Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthy to keep their flag flying high in the team events.
Star doubles player Mahesh Bhupathi is expected to arrive on Tuesday and will play in the individual events.
The teams enter the semi-finals straight away in the men's section, with India taking on The Philippines tomorrow while Sri Lanka play Nigeria.
The women's draw starts with a lone quarter-final match between The Philippines and Zimbabwe.
Bopanna is likely to have an easy match against 19-year-old Joseph Victorino in the first singles while India No.1 Prakash Amritraj should get past Johnny Arcila, who is top-ranked in The Philippines, without much problems.
Wimbeldon Junior girls' doubles champion Sania and Rushmi too can expect a smooth sailing against Zimbabwe.
"It is exciting to play in the tournament as it would be my first appearance on home ground after eight months," Sania said after the draw.
"I need to improve upon my physical fitness and a little bit on serves."
"We are clear favourites. All the players here are ranked far below the Indians," said the men's team captain, S P Misra, who, however, refused to admit that the competition has been reduced to a farce due to the no show of teams.
The women's team is captained by Enrico Piperno.
© 2024 Rediff.com -