PUNE: There is a nasty disease going on in the ATP at the moment. Some of the world’s best players are yet to recover from injuries they sustained last season, as a result of which they will be skipping tune-up events to the Australian Open beginning January 15.
The likes of Novak Djokovic (elbow, last played at Wimbledon), Kei Nishikori (wrist, last played at Montreal Masters), Stan Wawrinka (knee, last played at Wimbledon) and Rafa Nadal (knee, missed a chunk of year-end Finals) will all give the warm-up events a miss. Others like Andy Murray and Milos Raonic will use the tournament in Brisbane this week to assess whether their bodies have healed sufficiently after a testing 2017.
Closer home, this contagious condition will be felt acutely at the Tata Open Maharashtra which begins at the Balewadi Stadium on Monday. As many as eight players have been forced to withdraw because of injury. Ivo Karlovic, Jeremy Chardy, Rogerio Dutra Silva, Lukas Lacko, Yen Hsun Lu, Andrey Kuznetsov, Norbert Gambos, Jerzy Janowicz and Tommy Robredo have all pulled out in the last 48-72 hours. “It’s unusual but these guys have all pulled out over the last 3-4 days,” tournament director Tom Annear said.
This is exactly the sort of beginning Pune did not need. While Chennai Open had an old-world charm to it, familiarity had started to breed contempt. Patronage was decreasing and a sprinkling of stardust had also reduced. Some sponsors had also started adopting a sort of step-motherly attitude.
So it was not a surprise to see the tournament moving away. Another thing that wasn’t a surprise was Pune bagging the rights. It had the necessary nous (via hosting Challengers down the years), wanted to keep the event in India and backed up their ambition by bringing in blue riband sponsors. Keeping the event in India automatically got the organisers the goodwill because, as one prominent India player put it, “we are lucky to see it remain in India because if it had gone out, no way would we have got it back.”
That basically meant the organisers had a blank canvas in 2018. That’s why the pull-outs will be disappointing news. Some of the absentees had the ability to puts bums on seats. The one big problem Pune had was that a lot of the top-20 players were already locked on to contracts with Brisbane or Doha. This, the organisers privately hope, will change in 2019.
Even otherwise, there has been a few starting jitters, expected for a venue getting a taste of its first ever 250 event. “The stadium facilities are newer here,” Annear said. “There are some starting problems, but in general it has been a good start.
“Pune definitely has a Challenger mentality, but we have been pressing on them that the standard has to be higher. We have been delivering to them forms and details and expectations that comes from the ATP Tour. And they are meeting those expectations.” The next week will prove whether they have prepared well.
Select matches on Monday:
Singles (first round): Mikhail Kukushkin vs Radu Albot, Gilles Simon vs Tennys Sandgren, Ricardo Ojeda Lara vs Jiri Vesely, Ramkumar Ramanathan vs Roberto Carballes Baena, Marco Cecchinato vs Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
swaroop@newindianexpress.com
