KARACHI Citys tennis organisers over the years had claimed that they had promoted the sport as nowhere in other parts of the country but their tall claims were exposed when the organisers of the HBL Subh-e-Nau National Ladies Tennis Championships found out that there were hardly any local entries in the Championships which began here Wednesday at Modern Club court. Subh-e-Nau with the support of Habib Bank had arranged Rs. 200,000 as prize money for the championship and were hoping that there would be a draw of 64 in the main individual event. But despite their best efforts, they managed to muster a draw of 32 with most of the contestants coming from upcountry. The winner of the main event would be rich by Rs. 70,000 which is the biggest ever prize purse in an exclusively ladies event. The championship was aimed to promote tennis amongst girls of the city but there were only a few who showed up. All the top seeds in ladies tennis hailing from Islamabad have reached here to play. Three players from Lahore did not turn up at the event, while Anoosha Aslam, a previous national clay court champion from Islamabad, also could not make it in time to play the matches. Only three entries were received in the U-17 event, after which the event was replaced with a round-robin event. Chairperson and sports promoter Mrs Shahida Kauser Farooq said that the low attendance of women players reflects where the women s sports in the country is generally headed. The security situation in Karachi is also one major factor that has prevented players from participation in numbers expected. The U-17 event was replaced by another round robin event for eight players, involving the top five seeds, along with promising players, and re-allocated the prize money from the U-17 event for it. This was appreciated by players, who had taken the pain of traveling for the tournament. Mrs Farooq said that this round-robin event will maximise benefit to the players, by playing more matches against the best talent in the country. Ladies Doubles also started and were in progress at the time of filing of this report. Results Ladies singles: Seher Khwaja w/o Farah Batool. Sarah Ahmed w/o Nadeem Manzoor. Eman Malik w/o Anoosha Aslam. Aqeela w/o Warda Zafar. Hina Siddiqui w/o Ishrat Batool. Saba Aziz beat Urooj Iltifat 6-0, 6-0. Shahida Kausar Farooq beat Saima Batool 7-5, 6-3. Sara Mansoor beat Hina Siddiqui 6-0, 6-0. Ladies Doubles: Sarah Mehboob/Sarah Mansoor beat Hina Siddiqui/Saima Batool 6-0, 6-1.