No point in making things easy for players by hosting home tournaments, believes Mahesh Bhupathi
India’s Davis Cup captain Mahesh Bhupathi has claimed that making things easy for the players by hosting home tournaments throughout the year is of no use. He has further stated that the Indian tennis players need to play more tournaments abroad, in order to give them more exposure.
Bhupathi, who became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam tournament in 1997, did not mince words while speaking about the progress rate of the current Indian tennis players. The 44-year-old gave a few suggestions while addressing reporters on the sidelines of a function
Bhupathi dismissed the idea of hosting more tournaments in India in order to give the juniors more exposure. He felt that most of the current players were not being able to perform comfortably in foreign conditions. As a result, this issue had to be addressed and changed.
“I always believe that if you are good enough then you will come through. If you want to make it easy for players by hosting 40 tournaments in India then do it. But when they go to Europe or other countries, they are found wanting,” he said.
Further elaborating his point, Bhupathi said the two ATP Challengers Yuki Bhambri and Sumit Nagal, who had won the tournament last year, were good. However, he felt that in order to be in top-100 they had to beat their opponents away from home.
“We had two ATP Challengers last year, Yuki won one and Sumit won one. It is good for their confidence, but I feel in order to reach the top-100 you will have to beat the Europeans in Europe and the Americans in America,” Bhupathi added.
Speaking about the Indian women, Bhupathi said that Karman Kaur Thandi and Ankita Raina have the potential to break the barrier to reach the top-100.
“It is good to see Karman and Ankita in top-200. We haven’t had anyone in top-100 since Sania Mirza and I hope they can break the barrier and convert this opportunity,” he said.
The multiple-time Grand Slam champion was all praise for the likes of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran for skipping the US Open qualifiers to play the Asian Games.
“You know how much money they are putting on the table by missing the qualifiers. But I am happy that they chose to play for the country,” Bhupathi concluded.
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