Saturday, September 16 2006 12:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Paying the price for her sliding WTA rankings, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza would be the fifth seed in the USD 175,000 WTA Sun feast Open that begins here from September 18.

Sania, who was the third seed in the maiden edition of the tournament last year, has seen her WTA rankings drop sharply from 44 to 70 in the last two weeks after back-to-back early defeats in WTA events as also the US Open.

World number 9 Martina Hingis of Switzerland has been given top billing in the WTA tier III event, with last year's losing finalist Croatian Karolina Sprem (50 in WTA rankings) and Ukrainian Yuliana Fedak (64) being the second and third seeds respectively.

French girl Aravane Rezai, who now occupies the 66th slot as per the latest WTA list, would be the fourth seed.

Last year, eventual winners Anastasia Myskina of Russia and her compatriot Elena Likhovtseva were the top two seeds.

Announcing the seedings at a media conference, tournament director Jaidip Mukerjea says that the second edition of Sun feast Open would have 12 players who figure in the top 100 of the WTA rankings.

Estonian Kia Kanepei (74) would be the sixth seed followed by Australian Nicole Pratt (80) and Anastassia Rodionova (82) of Russia.

Hungarian Melinda Czink (84), who shows the door to Sania in the tournament last year, would be the ninth seed.

Galina Voskoboeva (87) of Russia, Ukranian Yulia Beygelzimer (88) and Russian Olga Poutchkova (97) complete the list of players in the top 100.

Mukerjea says compared to last year, the tournament has an improved field, with the lowest ranked player being Anne Keothvon (141) of Great Britain. Last year, the cut-off was 170.