Three to four Challengers in the country next year?  

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: International tennis returned to India on Monday with the beginning of an M15 in Indore, part of the ITF’s World Tennis Tour, the final rung in the professional men’s circuit. There will be two further M15s before the end of November (New Delhi and Gurugram).

In more good news for Indian players, who have been stuck at home during the pandemic, it’s likely that the country will play host to at least two or three Challengers early next year. If people who know the inner workings of the sport in the country are to be believed, Bengaluru, New Delhi as well as a city in Maharashtra could each host a Challenger — the second rung in men’s professional game — in the first three or four months of 2022.

Sunil Yajaman, honorary joint secretary, Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), confirmed this. “We (Bengaluru) are planning to host one,” he told this daily. “We are speaking to the ATP. We have a meeting coming up.” While the dates aren’t finalised, they would like to hold it post the Australian Open in February or March. There is a drawing board plan of conducting another Challenger later in the year.

“Apart from Bengaluru, New Delhi are also interested. Pune could also host one,” a source, who has intimate knowledge of the sport in the country, told this daily. If all the events do take place, that will act as a windfall for the Indian players who have been starved of playing in home Challengers in the recent past. In fact, there were no Challengers in India in 2021, the first time that has happened since 2013.