Promising Indians, playing the world circuit, are missing home events where they can garner valuable ATP points and crack Top-100.

By Bhagya L. Ayyavoo

Cracking the top-100 is something almost all promising tennis stars aspire for. Playing Challengers and Futures tournaments and accumulating points is the sure shot route to stardom. Talent alone is not enough to succeed in tennis. What better than playing Challengers and Futures at home?

Unfortunately, the scenario in India is not that encouraging. Only 11 men’s Futures events and not a single Challenger tournament – that’s just not enough for a nation whose tennis fortunes are upwardly mobile. Considering the latest rankings, India’s No. 1 star Somdev Devvarman has somewhat been left in the lurch.

Somdev had a dream start to the season, making the final of the Chennai Open ATP event. Thanks to his consistent form, Somdev came very close to cracking the Top 100 in ATP rankings, achieving his best-ever 116 in the list released on November 2. With a couple of Challenger events at home (offering around 50-100 points), he could have easily achieved the top-100 status this year.

That however, wasn’t the case. Somdev, in an email interview to Mobile ESPN, pointed out, “The AITA would have to raise the money and sponsors would have to step up to make the events happen. That’s how it happens all over the world.” In India, it is easier said than done.

The All India Tennis Association general secretary Anil Khanna explains: “This is what we’re telling the government, please give us more Challengers. Let’s not waste time. Give us $15000 Challengers. You put in $15,000, we will raise the money for the balance 15,000. Let us have a Challenger.

“The government should come into a partnership with the AITA. So, we’re telling the government ‘you please give the prize money, we will raise the sponsorship for the other costs.’ So, it is a public-private partnership that will really help us. I am looking at 40 men’s and 40 women’s events. If I can give 80 events every year, then we really need not worry about producing Top 100 players.”

Till we get these “dream” numbers portrayed by Khanna, Somdev is actually not complaining. “It would definitely be nice to play some tournaments in India. But the tour is set up in such a way that you have an opportunity every week to go and play anywhere in the world. So no excuses and it haven’t hampered my progress at all,” Somdev said.

On the other hand, Yuki Bhambri has moved swiftly up the ATP ladder sitting comfortably at 347. In his first season on the men’s tour, the junior Australian Open champion won five Futures, all in India. In the coming season, the Delhi boy will be looking to step up and play some Challengers. But, this time around, there won’t be any home comforts for him.

Yuki recounted, “We did have a couple of them last year in 2008.Then they shifted it to Futures which was good as well. But, I think it is always important to have a mixture of all tournaments.”

He added, “It is important we put in those Challenger-level events as well, even if all the Indian players can’t perform there. We still need that experience to know how it is and how to improve ourselves rather than spending a lot of money trying to play Challengers in Asia, Europe or even the US.

“In Europe, there are probably about 20 such in both men’s and women’s category. Some places like Paris have an event every other week. And it’s nothing less in the US,” Yuki said.

A few years back, there might have been questions as to which Indian player would benefit by these tournaments? That’s not the case today. Besides, Somdev, Yuki and Prakash Amritraj, there’s a Rohan Bopanna too. Despite missing major part of the season due to injury, Bopanna has already bagged two Challenger doubles titles.

Players like Harsh Mankad and Purav Raja had a good time as well in team events. Harsh won three titles and ended runners-up with his partner on five other occasions. Purav won the team title in Uzbekistan and reached the semifinals of four other events.

Regulars in Futures events like Vishnu Vardhan and Rohan Gajjar are also knocking on the doors. With talent in hand, it’s time to serve and volley fast.