In a setback for Indian tennis in terms of having presence on the ATP Tour, the country has lost its only ATP 250 tournament -- an event that was first held way back in 1996 and till recently was organised as Tata Open Maharshtra. The Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) had saved it from going out of the country in 2018 when Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) gave up on hosting the tournament after conducting it for 13 long years.
The tournament was an arrangement between MSLTA, Maharashtra government, IMG and RISE Worldwide (an initiative of the Reliance Group), the owner of the tournament.
"The contract with IMG and RISE stands successfully completed, MSLTA has undertaken all its commitments towards successful conduct of the event for 5 years," MSLTA Secretary Sunder Iyer and Tournament Director Prashant Sutar said in a statement.
"We still have a commitment from both the Government of Maharashtra and our sponsors TATA for promoting Tennis in Maharashtra and India when we have the right opportunities to organise any other major event which we are pursuing in right earnest currently in interest of our players and Indian tennis fraternity," they added.
IS IT REALLY A BIG LOSS?
In terms of presence, it definitely is a setback. Being on the ATP World Tour has lot of benefits, not just for the sport but also for the city that hosts the event.
The sport gets popularity when players like iconic Rafael Nadal, Carlos Moya, Stanislas Wawrinka and Marin Cilic compete in this tournament. It bring more people into the game while the city too gets prominence.
However, recently Cilic was the best the organisers could rope in.
But looking from the perspective of its benefit to Indian singles players, it can't be
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