Coimbatore, Dec. 23
Even as fans and part of the tennis community in Tamil Nadu are pondering over the shifting of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour 250 series from Chennai to Pune in Maharastra, Indian tennis player and former Junior Davis Cup representative from the country, Sriram Balaji, has said that the weather conditions in Pune, may not be preferable for some international players.
Briefing media persons at the Perks Sports Academy here today, Sriram Balaji said that the cooler Pune climate would not be helpful for the players, who wish to have a warm up tournament before the Australian Open, which is one of the four Grand slam events of ATP world tour held during the latter part of January, every year.
“The weather conditions in Melbourne during the season would be equal to that of Chennai. This is one of the reasons why many players chose to play here. Considering the relatively cooler climate in Pune, to where the tournament is now being shifted, we might see some low turnouts from the international circuit,” he added.
It may be noted that Chennai Open, owned by International Management Group (IMG) and organised by IMG-Reliance, has been shifted to Pune and christened as Maharashtra Open after Aircel declined from being the title sponsor for the event. Chennai hosted the event for 21 years until January, 2017.
Lack of sponsors was relatively haunting the tournament for a very long time and despite best efforts from the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association and State Government to keep the tournament here, IMGR cancelled the contract for 2018 and 2019 and Maharashtra grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
We should be happy that the slot still remains intact with the country to conduct an ATP tournament here. Yes, some players from Tamil Nadu may not get chance to play at the tourney in Maharashtra, but players would still be benefited as it has not moved away from India,” said Prajnesh Gunneswaran who has been qualified for the Maharastra Open.
Sriram Balaji and Prajnesh Gunneswaran were interacting with media at the academy along with top Indian tennis players including Arjuna Awardee Saketh Myneni, Ramkumar Ramanthan, Vishnu Vardhan, Vijay Prashanth and Vinayak Sharma. Elango Ranganathan, Director of the Perks Sports Academy and tennis coach Balu were also present.
Reacting to a question on why singles players from India were not faring well in International tennis tournaments, Saketh Myneni, who has represented India in Davis Cup, 2017, and has also won a Gold medal in mixed doubles at the Incheon Asian games in 2014, said that lack of a proper sports system was the reason.
“In India, parents largely focus on education and not many took up sports as their career. But the scenario is changing slowly and with more people choosing tennis as a career, our singles players can do well in the future,” he opined.
Claiming that lack of infrastructure to be another reason for the performance lag, Mr. Meyneni also said that if the sports is developed from grassroots level, the country’s players would perform well in international events abroad.
“Tennis has grown rapidly in the last 20 years and Indian players have performed well over the years. If the growth is fuelled with support from the society and government, then our players would sure bring laurels to the country,” he opined.
The players would be training at the Academy up to 27th of December and would also play exhibition matches on Sunday.