photo: Ossama Abdel-Nabi

Sand, sun and first service

TOMORROW at 4 o'clock, four of the world's most powerful women tennis players will make history when they line up on the Pyramids Plateau for the first Al-Ahram MobiNil Tennis Exhibition Tournament. The four players, including world no 4 Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, no 13 Russian Anna Kournikova, no 57 Olga Barabanschikova and no 72 Maria Sanchez-Lopez, have already arrived in Cairo.

The first two matches will take place tomorrow, when Sanchez-Vicario takes on Barabanschikova and Kournikova meets Sanchez-Lopez. The winners of the two matches will meet in the final which will be held on Saturday, while the losers will compete in a play-off for 3rd and 4th places, immediately prior to the final game.

Tickets are still available from the various Egyptian clubs: Maadi, Gezira, Ahli, Heliopolis and Shams. Prices are LE50 for the main stand and LE20 for the side stands. Each ticket entitles you to attend all the matches over the two days. A free shuttle bus to the ground will leave regularly from the Mena House Hotel, where car parking facilities are provided.

The four stars will not only show Egypt some of the best of world tennis at the Pyramids, but will also be helping train some of our junior players while they're in the country. On Friday morning, tennis fans will have the opportunity to watch the women stars in action coaching at the Gezira Club. Each player will spend 45 minutes with four junior players on courts 6, 7, 8 and 9.