Zheng and Yan, who became the first Chinese players to win a Grand Slam trophy after their victory in the Australian Open in January, are scheduled to play in the Bangkok Open, which will be held from October 7-15 at the Rama Gardens Hotel.

The 23-year-old Zheng upset Anastasia Myskina of Russia for her third career title in Stockholm on Sunday, which propelled her ranking from No 35 to a career best at No 27 in the world this week. Zheng and Yan also won this year's Wimbledon doubles title.

Mirza, one of Asia's big stars, will make her second appearance in the tournament. Falling to No 44 in the world due to injuries, she reached the second round last year before being forced to retire at 5-7 in a match against China's Yuan Meng due to an arm injury.

Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues is the highest ranked player at No 23 to have confirmed to organisers that she will play this year. Other top 40 players expected to come are No 28 Marion Bartoli of France, No 32 Gisela Dulko of Argentina and last year's semi-finalist and No 35 Natalie Dechy of France.

Former world No 8 Alicia Molik, who has been sidelined with an ear infection for almost a year, will also join the competition and hopes to use it to return to the top rankings.

However, teenage star Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic will not return to defend her title. The world No 9 beat Nadia Petrova of Russia in the final last year.

Organisers will award two main draw wild cards and four qualifying wild cards to local players. Tamarine Tanasugarn is likely to be awarded one of the cards into the 32-place main draw.

There will be special activities including a fashion show on the Saturday.

The semi-finals and final can be seen live on iTV. Tickets are available from Bt200-Bt500 and bookings can be made by calling 02-382-3488 or 02-382-3491-3 or go to www.pentanglepromotions.com.

Meanwhile, at the Tennis Academy of Asia, three Thai players failed to make it into the quarter-finals of the $10,000 PTT-LTAT Bangkok Open Men's Futures 5 event after losing their second round matches yesterday.

Kittipong Wachiramanowong went down to Australian Nick Lindahl 6-0 6-1, Peerakit Siributwong lost to South Korean Oh Seung-hoon 6-3 4-6 6-1 and Peerakiat Siriluethaiwattana fell to South Korea's Jae-Sung 6-3 6-2.

Elsewhere, South Korean Chung Hee-Seok had a comfortable 6-4 6-1 win over Chen Ti of Taiwan. Compatriot Kwon Hyung-tae edged out China's Yu Xin-yuan 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 6-7 (7-1).

Croatian Petar Jelenic trounced Xu Jun-chao of China 6-1 6-4, while American Jonathan Chu ousted Australian Kelly Dayne 6-2 6-2. Victor Kolik from Israel beat Australian Troy Gillham 6-4 6-4.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation