The nation’s only ATP 250 tournament in India is lost

Indian tennis has lost its lone ATP 250 competition, an event that was first conducted back in 1996 and was formerly run under the name Tata Open Maharashtra. This is a loss 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, and MSLTA has undertaken all its commitments towards the successful conduct of the event for 5 years,” stated MSLTA Secretary Sunder Iyer and Tournament Director Prashant Sutar in a joint statement.

In the interest of our players and the Indian tennis community, they continued, “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 organize any other major event, which we are pursuing in right earnest right now.

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 such renowned Rafael Nadal, Carlos Moya, Stanislas Wawrinka, and Marin Cilic participate in this competition, the sport becomes more well-known. More players join the game as a result, and the city gains notoriety.

Cilic, though, was recently the best the organizers could provide.

However, from the standpoint of how it would help Indian singles players, it cannot be characterized as a negative.

Due to their poor ranking, Indian players were usually forced to rely on wild cards to join the competition. Indian players could only gain 80 of the 1250 ATP Ranking points available throughout the course of the tournament’s five editions. They were never able to get beyond the second round.

Therefore, having Challengers is better than having a large tournament like this. It has been shown several times.

Utilizing 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.

Without celebrity appeal, it is difficult to attract money in India for a sport like tennis. Superstars like Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes put up their rackets a long time ago, and not a single Indian singles player is now rated in the top 200 in the world.

The top player in terms of rankings is Nagal, who is ranked 225, while the next greatest player is Mukund Sasikumar, who is ranked 374.

As a result, it becomes exceedingly challenging to attract sponsors when there are no local stars present.

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 entire budget, with the remaining costs covering organization, accommodation, player appearance fees, and tournament owners’ royalties.

The MSLTA was expected to fund the remaining Rs 5 crore after the Maharashtra government contributed Rs 5 crore. According to information obtained, the organizers could have raised Rs 10 crore but decided against doing so.

Though no contract has yet been finalized, it has also been learned that the competition would be moved to Hong Kong.

However, Indian doubles players gained a lot through participating in this competition.

To get ranking points and prize money, the present generation’s Rohan Bopanna, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, N Balaji, and Saketh Myneni made effective use of the competition.

The WTA tournament held in Chennai is another tennis event that is leaving the nation.