Big blow to Indian tennis as country's lone ATP 250 event exits
Indian tennis has lost its lone ATP 250 event, which was first held back in 1996 and was formerly run under the name Tata Open Maharashtra. This loss is a blow for Indian tennis in terms of maintaining a representation on the ATP Tour.
When the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) decided to stop hosting the tournament after holding it for 13 long years, the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) prevented it from leaving the nation in 2018. MSLTA, the Maharashtra government, IMG, and RISE Worldwide (a project of the Reliance Group), the tournament's owner, came to an agreement to hold the competition.
"The contract with IMG and RISE stands successfully completed, MSLTA has undertaken all its commitments towards the successful conduct of the event for 5 years," MSLTA Secretary Sunder Iyer and Tournament Director Prashant Sutar said in a statement.
"We still have a commitment from both the Government of Maharashtra and our sponsors TATA for promoting Tennis in Maharashtra and India when we have the right opportunities to organise any other major event which we are pursuing in right earnest currently in the interest of our players and Indian tennis fraternity," they added.
It certainly represents a setback in terms of presence. Being a part of the ATP World Tour provides several advantages for the sport as well as the host city.
When players like the legendary Rafael Nadal, Carlos Moya, Stanislas Wawrinka, and Marin Cilic participate in this event, the sport gains popularity. More players are drawn into the game, and the city gains notoriety. Cilic, though, was recently the best the organisers could muster.
However, from the standpoint of how it would help Indian singles players, it cannot be characterised as a negative.
Due to their poor ranking, Indian players were usually forced to rely on wild cards to enter the competition. Indian players could only gain 80 of the 1250 ATP Ranking points available throughout the course of the tournament's five editions. Never could they go past the second round.
Therefore, having Challengers is better than having a large tournament like this. It has been demonstrated several times.
Utilising KPIT Challenger to its fullest, Yuki Bhambri entered the top 100 in 2015. Sumit Nagal's career received a major boost after winning the Bengaluru Challenger, and Prajnesh Guneswaran also took advantage of the situation when he performed well in the Challengers hosted in India.
REASONS FOR THE TOURNAMENT LEAVING
Without celebrity appeal, it is difficult to attract money in India for a sport like tennis. Superstars like Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes put their racquets away a long time ago, and now, not a single Indian singles player is in the top 200 in the world.
The player with the highest ranking is Nagal, who is ranked 225, while the next-best player is Mukund Sasikumar, who is ranked 374.
Therefore, it becomes quite difficult to attract sponsors when there are no local stars in the sport.
Every year, MSLTA has to spend at least Rs 15 crore to conduct this competition. In their five-year commitment, which started in 2018, they invested at least Rs 75 crore.
Prize money distribution requires at least Rs 5.2 crore of the overall budget, with the remaining costs including organisation, hotel, player appearance fees, and tournament owners' royalties.
The MSLTA was responsible for raising the remaining funds, with the Maharashtra government contributing Rs 5 crore. According to information obtained, the organisers could have raised Rs 10 crore but decided against doing so. Though no contract has yet been finalised, it has also been learned that the competition would be moved to Hong Kong.