Manish Sureshkumar in motion within the Chennai Open qualifiers on Sunday.
| Photograph Credit score: B. Jothi Ramalingam
In an in any other case dismal tennis scene in India, one constructive in recent times has been the conduct of a handful of ATP, WTA and ITF tournaments. Three States – Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu – have put their greatest foot ahead to assist Indian gamers achieve essential factors and transfer up the rankings.
The outcomes, nevertheless, paint a special image. There has solely been one Indian singles winner in 12 Challengers from 2019 – Sumit Nagal in Chennai final 12 months. Within the first of 4 back-to-back Challengers that will get underway in Chennai from Monday, not a single Indian is ranked excessive sufficient to realize a direct major draw entry.
World No. 105 Nagal, who breached the top-100 after successful in Chennai, is just not taking part in any of the 4 competitions and has chosen his beloved clay in South America. Sasikumar Mukund (395), Ramkumar Ramanathan (400) and Karan Singh (500) all needed to be given wildcards.
Teaching conundrum
“The extent of teaching is just not ok,” Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who achieved a career-best rating of 75, instructed The Hindu. “I gained’t blame the expertise or the potential. Gopi Chand and Rahul Dravid are teaching. It’s not that they didn’t do nicely as gamers and generate profits. However they’ve come again. The place is the tennis participant of that calibre teaching in India?
“Or rent foreigners, however they are going to ask thrice the wage, which is principally throwing cash on the downside like China. You may maintain 50 tournaments, but when your gamers usually are not ok, no person will win.”
Higher timing
Former India Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali felt that scheduling has performed an element. “Having three or 4 tournaments in a row attracts loads of high-ranked foreigners,” he stated. “It’s price efficient for them they usually take away loads of entries.”
“It’s higher to area tournaments out. Perhaps have two, give two or three weeks off. Have a pair in scorching June as a substitute of nice February. You gained’t have loads of People and Europeans coming.”
For the report, ATP discourages one-off occasions and desires two or extra bunched collectively. This helps gamers, no matter nationality, to handle prices higher. However the unlucky fallout is like what occurred in February, 2023, when Australian Max Purcell entered India ranked 203, swept all three Challengers and exited the nation ranked 95.
Catch-22 state of affairs
Attempting to ace this powerful balancing act is Sunil Yajaman, joint-secretary of Karnataka State Garden Tennis Affiliation (KSLTA), which is able to organise the Bengaluru Open (February 24 to March 2). The event has grown in stature – from 80 ATP factors and $7200 for the singles winner in 2022 to 125 and $28,400 in 2025. An Indian winner would be the icing on the cake.
“I hope the regulation of averages helps,” Yajaman quipped. “In Bangalore, we now have had two Indian winners in eight years (Nagal in 2017 and Prajnesh 2018), which is respectable. That stated, it’s an amazing alternative, and in the event that they put together barely higher and otherwise, I’m certain they are going to do nicely.”
Printed – February 02, 2025 08:44 pm IST
