Re: ATP/ITF/WTA tournament calendar updates

sameerph · Post by **sameerph** » Sun Sep 04, 2022 3:07 pm

There are no ATP challengers in India this October-November. I heard that Pune Challenger which used to be there earlier is pushed to February to be held along with Bengaluru challengers. There are 3 challengers in Korea in October and 4 challengers in Japan in November. So, something in Asia at least for our players to go although I guess going to Korea/Japan will be as expensive as going to play in Europe/US.

For lower level players, there are 4 back to back futures starting from Oct 31 to November 27 starting with 15K in New Delhi followed by 25K's in Indore and Mumbai and ending with 15K in Bhilai.

Omkara · Post by **Omkara** » Mon Sep 12, 2022 10:15 am

No point. I doubt we have players who can use these. Most of our players are way past their respective peaks.

Post by **jayakris** » Mon Sep 12, 2022 12:48 pm

Omkara wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 10:15 am No point. I doubt we have players who can use these. Most of our players are way past their respective peaks.

The M15/M25s are useful though. Hopefully there is a player from among Manish (23), Digvijay (22), Nitin (23), Ishaq (24), Dev (20), Adil (22), and Karan (19)... Somebody who is a late bloomer (or taken off-track in development by the Covid period)... They are all between ATP 500 and 1100... Also some names like Siddhanth Banthia (22) who need to get going again... Not sure who all will play the events, but let us hope for one or two to be capable for going into the top 250 later. It may be hoping for a miracle, but not totally improbable. They can all use the M15/M25 series as stepping stones.

The series could also be of use for some others in the 18-22 range like Nishant Dabas, Madhvin Kamath, Aditya Balsekar (though he may stay in US colleges), to get some more pro level experience, and maybe those younger like Manas, Rushil, Kriish etc to get into some pro events' draws to test themselves.

Omkara · Post by **Omkara** » Tue Sep 13, 2022 2:40 am

Is it fair to say that India lost more from scrapping of futures series and hasn't been yet come to terms with the M15/M25 series?

sameerph · Post by **sameerph** » Tue Sep 13, 2022 4:02 am

Futures series has not been scrapped. These M15/M25 are only renaming of those futures. Earlier there were $10K/$15K futures, after a while the prize money got increased to $15K/$25K. Now, only those are renamed as M15/M25 nothing else.

As Jay said, these are useful for our second tier players, not much for first tier players who are past their prime as you say ( although particularly those M25's can be useful for ones like Mukund/Prajnesh too to gain a lot of ranking points and move up ).

sameerph · Post by **sameerph** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 4:06 am

3 back to back 100K mens challengers to be held in Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune in February. Also another 50K challenger in Nagpur it seems ( although as per another articles that is yet to be approved by ITF), Also a lot of womens tournaments till March.

This is tweet from Sunder Iyer with press release from AITA-

arjun2761 · Post by **arjun2761** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 4:43 am

Looks like good news for our men, women, and juniors! Hope they can take advantage. In any case, this is much needed after the reduction in Asian events over the last couple of years which has negatively impacted our players rankings.

prasen9 · Post by **prasen9** » Tue Nov 01, 2022 10:57 pm

Is this a good set? What would you guys wanted differently if you had the money and logistic support to schedule whatever you wanted within constraints of course, meaning, you could do an ATP tournament or multiple challengers, not just everything due to some constraints?

prashanthm · Post by **prashanthm** » Wed Nov 02, 2022 2:00 am

I think from a player progression point of view, multiple challengers is a better option for now. Because if we get a single ATP 250 tournament, then most of our players are not at the level of being able to take advantage. If things look up, that may become a better option in the future.

sameerph · Post by **sameerph** » Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:51 pm

So, these 3 back to back 100 challengers are now on ATP calendar- starting from week of Feb 13- First Chennai, then Bengaluru and Pune in last week of February. With the current form of our players and their rankings, I wonder how many will get into main draw and how many will benefit but there are 3 ATP tournaments in each of these 3 weeks- so hopefully not too many top 100 players make it here.

Atithee · Post by **Atithee** » Sat Dec 10, 2022 2:22 am

sameerph wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:51 pm I wonder how many will get into main draw and how many will benefit but there are 3 ATP tournaments in each of these 3 weeks- so hopefully not too many top 100 players make it here.

And, how does this help a nation starved of even morsels of upward movement? Ah, doubles. Got it.

Sorry; bad week at work and I’m cranky.

arjun2761 · Post by **arjun2761** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 12:26 am

Not sure these challengers are for the dubs specialists as they are in the top 150 and play and do well in challengers all over the world. Hoping it helps some of our singles players like Sumit, Prajnesh, Ramk, Mukund etc. who haven’t had many Indian or even Asian events in the last 3 years. Whenever our singles players have made top 100 runs in the recent past they have gotten boosts from Indian and Asian events.

Dinesh · Post by **Dinesh** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 5:37 pm

2 ITF tournaments have been added in Bangalore in addition to the previously stacked women’s calendar for the new year. So, for women, the first 3 months looks like this:

W40 Nonthaburi- Week of January 02
W40 Nonthaburi- Week of January 09
W40 Bhopal - Week of January 16
W40 Pune - Week of January 23

W15 Jhajjar - Week of February 06
W15 Jhajjar - Week of February 13
W15 Jhajjar - Week of February 20
W25 Bengaluru - Week of February 27

W40 Bengaluru - Week of March 06

W40 is a new category being introduced by the ITF that awards 50 points for the winner. Hope our players take advantage of this busy season and build their rankings. Players like Sahaja (if she improves the DF situation), Shrivalli Rashmikaa and Vaidehi can hugely benefit from this series.

sameerph · Post by **sameerph** » Sat Jan 07, 2023 5:25 am

Dinesh wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 5:37 pm W40 is a new category being introduced by the ITF that awards 50 points for the winner. Hope our players take advantage of this busy season and build their rankings. Players like Sahaja (if she improves the DF situation), Shrivalli Rashmikaa and Vaidehi can hugely benefit from this series.

70 points for winner of W40 which are closer to W60 which have 80 points. W25 winner takes 50 points and only 10 points for winner of W15.

So, W15 are really only for lowest rung players ranked below 500.

As you said our players must take advantage of these home W40's. But, entry lists are going to be tough. I just looked at Bhopal W40 entry list in 2 weeks time and only Karman, Ankita get in the main draw among Indians and they will be just outside seedings. So, our players need to create a lot of upsets to make good use of these tournaments.

sameerph · Post by **sameerph** » Fri Apr 07, 2023 4:56 pm

So, finally China is getting ready to host ITF tournaments back after 4 years gap.

They are starting with 4 tournaments each for men and women in June (although only 1 of them is 25K level).

There is noting much in May but looking at June ITF calender for men in Asia starting from 29th May week, there are as many as 5 tournaments in Indonesia (2 M25/3 M15), 4 in China ( 1 M25, 3 M15), 3 in Thailand ( all M15) , 3 in Korea ( all M15) and 2 in Iran (M15) - 17 tournaments in 5 weeks.

There are 14 tournaments in that period in Asia for women too- China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

So, lots of opportunities to play for our second or third tier players and raise their rankings- particularly for men as tournaments are more in Indonesia, Thailand etc where our players travel to more.

Hope challenger calendar also gets busy in Asia to help our first tier players.