Indian Tennis Authorities & Players React to ITF Transition Tour
Tennis – Indias top tennis officials and players have reacted to the new changes beiing introduced on the professional tennis circuit – which will limit the number of players being ranked on the ATP/ WTA rankings list – in an article published by the daily The Hindu and as with many others, their reactions are mixed.
Karti Chidambaram, Vice-President of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association, commented, You need to limit the number of the people who have ATP points. Earning an ATP point should be a matter of great privilege. You cant have someone having one point and thinking they are world-ranked. Hironmoy Chatterjee, secretary-general of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), commented, These transition events [World Tennis Tour] will be a waste of money.
They are not going to help our players protect their ATP rankings. We opposed the proposals and gave it in writing. Sunder Iyer, secretary, Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association, says, The juniors will get an early taste of the professional level.
For example, Yuki [Bhambri] spent a lot of time after the junior Australian Open success [2009] playing the Futures. So he lost three or four years. It did obviously teach him things the hard way. But this system may have helped him.
The idea is to start an Indian circuit and get at least 25 State associations to host smaller events. We can then select the top seven or eight players and send them abroad with a coach and physio to play transition tournaments. Indias top-ranked womens player Ankita Raina, currently ranked inside the Top 200, says, At my ranking (World No.
195), it wont have much of an effect, but for others, it will be clearer only after two or three months. Indias top-ranked mens singles player, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, ranked No. 107 in the world, says. The reason why some played only Futures and not the Challengers but still made it to the 250s was that there was a gap which allowed them to do that, Now you cant.
Players should play those at their own level if they want to progress.
