ATP Challenger-level Tennis returns to India after a two year halt due to the pandemic. The tournament is a part of three-wing swing of international men’s tennis in India that started with the Tata Open Maharashtra ATP 250. As the event will end Indian will look to cash in a large amount of money which will help them to survive this high-cost sport.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, is the highest ranked Indian standing at 184. Indian will come in with a lot of confidence as he successfully won his first ever Challenger last year.
Ramkumar Ramanathan has made the second round twice once in 2018 and then in 2019 while Prajnesh Gunneswaran cleared the first round once in 2020 with Yuki Bhambri cleared the first round once in 2018.
There has been a home winner in doubles tennis in three of the last four years with 2 all Indian-pairs.
“Two events back-to-back will be very useful and motivating,” said Prajnesh, who will open against Frenchman Mathias Bourgue. “Three weeks of tennis is not something we see often in India. It is a great opportunity for us to make something special happen.”
Somdev Devvarman’s was the only Indian who made it to the finals of the event in 2009 and that was the best performance by any Indian signals players, whereas the Indian double-players have won the event multiple times l. Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharma won the event once in 2019. Rohan Bopanna also won it in 2017 in Chennai with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.
Former Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj said India must keep a big event in the country.
“If it is a choice between five Challenger tournaments and one ATP 250 due to sponsorship reasons, then it would probably be better to have the Challengers. Having said that, I would hate to see India lose the only ATP event we have,” Amritraj told PTI from Los Angeles.
In 2022 ATP India many Indians have participated in the marquee event including Mulund Sasikumar, Manish Sureshkumar, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Yuki Bhambri and Arjun Kadhe but not even a single Indian reached the finals of the event, with Sasikumar and Sureshkumar lost in the qualifiers of the event with Gunneswaran lost in the round of 32, but the Indian doubles team won the finals of the doubles event. Yuki Bhambri is the only Indian singles player who reached the round of 16.
