Tennis fans in India could soon see World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Roger Federer competing at the Maharashtra Open, the only official ATP event in the country.
Both Federer and Nadal have participated in the lucrative Indian Premier Tennis League in Delhi but have never been a part of any ATP Tournament in India. However, it could soon change if Maharashtra Open’s director Prashant Sutar is to be believed.
“This year we have a star line-up with the likes of Marin Cilic, Kevin Anderson and the likes of former World No.5 Tommy Robredo playing in the qualifiers, it shows the level of competitiveness in the tournament. From what I understand, Federer and Nadal have a contract with Brisbane (Federer will be competing in Hopman Cup in Perth) for 2018 but after that we will try our best to get them on board,” Sutar told News18.
The competition which was earlier called the Chennai Open but was rechristened recently after it moved to Pune, has seen multiple Major winners as participants. The likes of Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, Carlos Moya and Boris Becker have all competed in the tournament before flying to Melbourne to take part in the year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open.
Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) secretary Sundar Iyer argued in favor of the move to shift the tournament from Chennai to Pune.
“Chennai is different, Pune is different. It’s like a kid who has grown up and has moved to new pastures for his development. A lot of time and money was invested in Chennai Open but now we have taken up the mantle to bring it here. We are fully prepared in terms of facilities, infrastructure. We have been working on a lot of events,” Iyer said.
“We have hosted Challengers, Davis Cup and also won the award from ITF for it. This gives us real confidence about hosting the event,” Iyer added.
“Pune is a tennis loving city, we had almost 2500 people turn up for the Challengers recently and with some top players in action, getting the crowds won’t be such a difficult thing. We are expecting good crowd for the tournament,” Iyer said.
