The ATP Challengers provide the best opportunity for young Indian tennis players to garner vital points to secure international rankings. For this the Indian government and corporates must help
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Quite clearly, tennis is on the upswing in India. It is heartening to note that there are as many as 50 Indian tennis players in the 200-500 International ranking bracket. With more qualified coaches, more players and more tournaments being organised in the country, the next five years could see a sea change in Indian tennis.
India beat New Zealand 4-1 in the recent Davis Cup Asia-Oceanic Group-I match held in Pune and the spotlight was once again on tennis. Several tennis writers pooh-poohed the victory stating that it was a foregone conclusion and instead criticised the All India Tennis Association (AITA), blaming it for the absence of Indian tennis players in the world’s top 100 players.
Yes, there was a time when Indian singles tennis players actually made their presence felt in the world top 100. In the early seventies, the popular tennis acronym---ABC of tennis stood for--Amritraj-Borg-Connors. So successful was Vijay Amritraj, India’s star tennis players of that era, that he was ranked an admirable number 16 in the world. Around that time, Vijay had beaten American Jimmy Connors, a consistent world number one, as many as five times. Vijay even beat the redoubtable Bjorn Borg of Sweden, another world number one in international tournaments.
Ramesh Krishnan, another fine singles player also reached an admirable 23 in world rankings. At his peak, Ramesh created a stir when he beat the defending Australian Open champion and then world number one, Mats Wilander of Sweden in straight sets in the second round of the 1989 Australian Open.
Other Indian tennis players who made an entry into the top 100 singles players of the world include Sania Mirza (no 27), Leander Paes (no 73) and more recently Somdev Devvarman (no 62) and Yuki Bhambri (no 99).
So what prevents more Indian players, both men and women from storming into the top 100? This at a time, when AITA officials state that there are close to 50 Indian players, both men and women who are ranked between 200-500 in the world. Not a figure to scoff at, given the fact that tennis as a sport is still in the growth stage in India.
Quite clearly, it is the lack of access to enough ATP Challenger tournaments for Indian tennis players which prevent them earning vital points. According to Hiranmoy Chatterjee, secretary general, AITA, organising a single ATP Challenger tournament could cost between USD 50,000-USD 100,000. Which is only possible with corporate and government funding. Chatterjee said that AITA’s long-standing dialogue with the central government for financial support is finally bearing fruit with a more encouraging response from the present sports administration. AITA is hoping to kick start several ATP tournaments in different parts of the country which would enable our home-grown talent get vital points for their ascendancy on the world stage.
According to the veteran tennis administrator, players based in Europe are extremely lucky to hop from one ATP event to other at very low costs, collecting vital points. “This does not happen in India. We are hoping to correct this lacunae with government support,” Chatterjee said.
On the brighter side, AITA says that they are trying very hard to spread the tennis net as wide as possible at the grassroots level. One of the strategies being used is to create more ITF (International Tennis Federation) certified coaches in the country. AITA boasts of at least 5,000 ITF certified coaches in the country and as many as 29 ITF certified officials. According to Chatterjee, better qualified coaches in two-tier cities and towns will result in more competent tennis players emerging on the national level, which in turn would result in more international quality players.
Tennis administrators also point to far better tennis infrastructure than existed some 15 years ago. Realising the growing popularity of the sport, realtors in metro cities and even some two-tier cities are routinely constructing tennis courts in their residential complexes. This is a good development as it allows many more children to take to the sport.
The growing tennis infrastructure coupled with more AITA driven tennis tournaments like the ‘Talent Series’ specially targeted at under 10 and under 12 age group players is a indeed a step in the right direction.
But the bottom line is indeed having more ATP Challenger tournaments in the country. In a recent interview to a national daily, Indian tennis ace, Leander Paes also was categorical about the need to organise more ATP Challenger events in India.
One of the solutions before AITA could be to approach large corporates, who could be convinced to contribute their CSR funds to organise ATP Challenger tournaments. This is a definite win-win. The companies would benefit tremendously from the media mileage and the young Indian tennis players would collect vital ATP points.
