Asian Tennis Fed Cup from December 19

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will spearhead India's challenge in the the US $90,000 Asian Tennis Federation Cup, which will be held in Delhi for the fourth successive year, from December 19 to 24.

This is the first time that the tournament will also have a women's event.

Tournament director Bishwadeep Akhouri said on Monday that the prize-money has been increased by six thousand dollars. The men's section will carry 50,000 dollars while the women section will have 40,000 dollars.

In the last three editions, the top eight teams of the continent were invited to take part in the competition, which was conceptualized as a team event on the lines of the Davis Cup.

The format of the fourth edition has been changed and now four top men and women's teams of the continent will take part.

In the men's section, the teams taking part are: India, Korea, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

In the women's section, the teams are India, China, Indonesia and Thailand.

The tournament will be conducted on a round-robin basis and the two top teams will figure in the finals in both sections.

The prize-money in the men's section is: Winners-25,000 dollars, runner-up 12,500 dollars, third place 6,500 dollars, fourth place 6,000 dollars.

In the women's section, the winners will take 20,000 dollars, the runner-up 10,000, third place 5,500 dollars and fourth place 4,500 dollars.

Japan's Nao Kawatei has been nominated referee of the tournament by the ATF. The chair umpires are China's Shu Chen, Singapore's Ales Yeo, India's Puneet Gupta and Nitin Kannamwar.

The women's final will be played on December 23 while the men's final is slated for the next day.

UNI