Kolkata, Sep 17 (IANS) The Sunfeast Open that gets underway Monday will be marked as a comeback battle for Indian ace Sania Mirza and world No. 9 Martina Hingis, who is top seeded here.

The meet is of huge importance for both leading ladies. While Sania, seeded fifth here, is trying to stem the rot, Hingis is trying to prove that she is far from over the hill.

Sania, whose slide from a career-best 34 in the world rankings to the current 70 is a big setback, will be looking forward to the Sunfeast Open to redeem some pride.

Her steep slide down the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings has been often attributed to the lack of having a regular coach. Constant chopping and changing has not helped her cause at all.

Sania has got an easy lung-opener against a qualifier, while Hingis would be up against No. 84 Melinda Czink of Hungary.

Czink, who had taken the fizz out of the Sunfeast Open last year by conquering crowd favourite Sania in the second round, could be quite a battle for Hingis.

In contrast, Sania is scheduled to face the winner of the first round battle between Russian Galina Voskoboeva and Sandra Kloesel of Germany in the second round.

And in all likelihood the Indian would face fourth seed French girl Aravane Rezai, who locks horns with Indian wild card Ankita Bhambri in her first tie.

Hingis started 2006 as an unranked player and a second round loss in the US Open capped off what has otherwise been an ordinary year. And Sunfeast Open is in her scheme of things to turn things around.

Second seed Karolina Sprem of Croatia has a relatively easy draw till the quarters, where she has the chance to meet eighth seed Anastasia Rodionova, while third seed Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine will have it easy till the semi-finals where seventh seed Nicole Pratt of Australia will lock horns.

Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus who has just returned from a good WTA outing, will be her likely opponent in the quarters.

Among other Indians, 194th ranked Shikha Uberoi, who has received a wild card, faces 132nd ranked Czech girl Hana Sromova in the first round.

The other wild card entrant, US-born player of Indian origin Sunitha Rao, has a tough opener as she would be up against seventh seed Nicole. This will also be a comeback for Sunitha who is fighting an injury-induced lay-off to get back to her prime.

So would be the case of Uzbek Iroda Tulyaganova, who is making a comeback in her first WTA meet in three years. Iroda in her prime was ranked along with the likes of Russian Anastasia Myskina, the winner of the meet last year.