Kirilenko Upbeat about Sofia Tournament after Injury Woes

Russian Maria Kirilenko returns against Poland`s Urszula Radwanska during the women single first round of the 2010 Hansol Korea Open Tennis Championships at Olympics Park in Seoul South Korea, 22 September 2010. Photo by BGNES

Russian Maria Kirilenko, who was awarded the second wild card into the WTA Tournament of Champions in Sofia, said this is a chance to end the season on a good note after pulling out of Seoul because of injury.

"I did not play for some time because of injury and the possibility for another tournament is a good one," Kirilenko said in an interview for the official site of the tournament.

Bulgaria's capital Sofia will host the Tournament of the Champions for the first time October 30-November 4, an opportunity for local tennis fans to enjoy some of the world's elite players.

For the Russian, ranked 14th in the world, this will not only be a debut experience at a Tournament of the Champions, but also her first visit to Bulgaria and Sofia, which she says is impatient to see and explore.

Last month Maria Kirilenko was forced to retire from her first-round match at the Korea Open because of a back problem.

The second-seeded former champion had split the first two games against Korean wild card Lee So-Ra before calling it quits.

The 2012 WTA Tournament of Champions is a singles-only tennis tournament that will be played on indoor hard courts in Sofia. It is the fourth edition of the tournament and is part of the 2012 WTA Tour.

The 2012 edition is the first to be held in Sofia, having been relocated from Bali, where the tournament was held for the previous three years and called the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions.

The tournament in Sofia will feature eight tennis players, two of whom received a "wild card" – Bulgaria's female tennis star Tsvetana Pironkova and Russian Maria Kirilenko.

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