CHENNAI: The next 9 days will reveal if India will go a whole calendar year without hosting a single ATP Challenger: the second rung of the professional men’s game. Organisers of the Pune Challenger, an event that takes place in the fag end of the season, have already written to the world body but they will know one way or other by September 15.
While the organisers have no problems in arranging the event — they are keen to go ahead as per schedule — the Covid-19 cases mean ATP are closely monitoring the situation. With India continuing to record over 40,000 new Covid-19 cases, the country is in the travel ‘red list’ of other countries. That means if players come here to take part in the Challenger, they will have to serve some sort of quarantine upon leaving India before being allowed to re-enter the circuit.
The ATP do not want that to happen. If players aren’t able to freely play in events without quarantine after leaving India, it’s likely that the event will be scratched. “Another 10 days and we will know for sure whether that event will take place or not,” is how a person in the know put it. “The deadline is September 15. One way or another, that’s the deadline.” If, as expected, the Challenger doesn’t go ahead it will be the first time that India will have not hosted a single event across both the ATP World Tour, highest rung of the men’s game, and the Challenger this century.
This isn’t an ideal situation to be in as players have now had to base themselves in Europe to pick up priceless ranking points. “It’s a big blow to the players, there is no denying that,” Nandan Bal, AITA’s selection committee chairman, said. “Basing yourselves in Europe, where there are a lot of competitions and Challengers, throughout the year is tough as it’s hard on the pocket.” A familiar accusation is that there is no money in the sport and corporates haven’t come forward. While that may be true, the extraordinary circumstances — Bal feels — will have to be taken into account. “This (a dearth of Challengers) is only for the last few years. Before that events did take place in the country.” That’s true.
After zero events in 2013, India hosted five in 2014. That gradually dropped to one in 2020 as Covid-19 played havoc with the schedule. “All other factors being well, one would expect the no of Challengers to pick up once the situation is back to normal,” Bal said. In more worrying news, it looks likely that next year’s Pune Open, India’s only ATP World Tour meet, may be postponed or cancelled. As reported by this daily a few weeks ago, it’s looking like a doubtful starter.