India need a player in the top 50 to bring spectators to the stadium, says Mahesh Bhupathi

12/14/2018

Mahesh Bhupathi has stated that India needs to have at least one player in the singles top-50 rankings to bring upper-tier WTA tournaments to the country which will, in turn, bring spectators to the stadium. India currently hosts only one major WTA event in the $125,000 Mumbai Open.

Mahesh Bhupathi stated that India needs to have a singles player in the top 50 of the women’s singles rankings to bring major ITF events to the country. He also stated that many other sports like badminton have the players and hence those champions carry the burden on their shoulder and take the sport forward in the country.

“When Sania was playing, there were a lot of people watching. In any sport, you need to have a champion to champion the sport,” Bhupathi said.

“In badminton, Saina did well, now Sindhu and Srikanth and all are doing well. We don’t have a girl in the top 50 to champion a WTA event.

India hosted WTA tier III tournaments from 2004 to 2008, but since then there have been no major tournaments in the country. Bhupathi also revealed that Sania’s success at the International level played a major role to bring the Hyderabad Open to the city in the year 2005.

“We were fortuitous about the timing of our WTA event. We went and chased WTA event and brought it to India because of Sania’s breakthrough.”

India will be playing the Davis Cup qualifiers on February 1-2 next year. Bhupati asserted that playing on the grass would be the best chance for his team to beat the Italian team. The premium Tennis competition will be held in Kolkata after a gap of 16 years. A nostalgic non-playing captain Bhupathi said that it is special for him to play there.

“In Davis Cup, you always try and play to the strengths of your team and when Somdev became No 1, the grass was not an option anymore,” he said. Now the team we have, grass suits a lot of the players and we are happy to be back.

“We are just happy to be playing a big match at home and obviously Kolkata for me is a special place, where I made my debut. There is so much amazing tradition in tennis here.”

As per the new format, 24 teams will vie for top spot in the Qualifiers on home and away basis with the 12 winners joining six more in the Finals in Madrid from November 18-24 next year.

“The format is altered so regardless of what anybody says, it is what it is today,” said Bhupathi.

“As a Davis Cup captain I take the rules and our team tries to win by the rules, that is the bottom-line.”