The Bengaluru tennis circuit hit a new milestone in 2025. The Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) recently hosted the latest edition of the Bengaluru Open, one of the major stops on the ATP Challenger Tour calendar. (More Tennis News)
The tournament, which takes place in a city that shapes dreams and destinies, and a one of timeless charm, celebrated its ninth birthday with an upgrade to ATP 125 from the previous edition’s ATP 100.
All things are well it seems, but are they truly? Another successful Challenger event in India, another tennis success for the country.
ꦍIs it that simple? If yes, is it sufficient for a sport that was born to flourish?
🎃While another Challenger may keep some Indian tennis critics quiet, it does not change the fact that in order to maximise its potential, the country's current set-up needs to undergo a facelift to provide more gripping competition.
🎃For Indian tennis, everything isn’t enough, at least at the moment. It needs fighting with muscle, nerve, strength and spirit to make it to the global stage.
🐲Progress, not perfection, will have to be the mantra. A journey that makes the process supreme and the result irrelevant.
🐼As the Bengaluru Open 2025 drew curtains on another season, the tournament director and KSLTA’s joint secretary Sunil Yajaman opened up about how to catapult the sport in the country.
🎶“Well, we definitely need more ATP Challenger tournaments because I think one of the things is that we should have more International Tennis Federation (ITF) events for sure. Any tournament that is conducted, it is going to be helpful for the Indian players,” Sunil Yajaman told Outlook.
⛎When you take a seat and watch the local talents train for the ATP Challenger events, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was for Roland Garros or Wimbledon, and for them it probably means as much.
𒁃The kids surely need more exposure. To measure talent within the country is one, and to do it on the global stage is altogether another beast.
🍬To have a measure where India stands, the country will need more international tournaments that provide a global level of exposure for the youth.
🎶“So, from my professional experience, I would say that we at least need about 20 to 25 weeks of men's ITF and about 15 to 20 weeks of women's ITF. And at least 10 ATP Challengers and at least about 8 to 10 ITF women's events above 50,000 US-dollar tournaments,” Yajaman added.
🔯Talking about how a well-oriented talent development program can change the face of the game in a country, he said: “If India can have about 40 to 50 weeks of ITF tournaments for men and women, that would be the best thing that can happen for Indian tennis because our players would not even need to travel out of India. They can get their ranking up to 200 by just playing within India, which will help them save a lot of money.”
🌞The KSLTA has two goals: opportunity and expansion. The association has been doing a lot to promote the sport.
❀Seeing the broader picture in the tennis scene, it has also been giving wildcards to not only the local talent in the state, but to deserving talent in the country.
꧃“The last ITF 100,000 women's event that we had, we didn't even give a wildcard for a local Karnataka player because we knew that there were deserving players from India who required the wildcards. And we were happy to give it to all of them. So, I think we need to look at the broader picture. We need to look at the Indian players in a bigger picture when we do these ITF or ATP events," Yajaman said.
꧟There will always be some that will say, perhaps the country simply didn’t have the tennis talent necessary to go big, and they could be right. But for the country to be an actual functioning success story for tennis, it would have needed to open amongst a plethora of talent.
🔯But there was no plethora because the initial work to achieve that would have needed work into motion years earlier. There was no audience for the show. However it isn't too late either.
“I would probably request the government, whether it is the Indian government ꦉor the state government, to create more infrastructure for all sports in every taluk. I mean, you don't need stadiums. Every taluk can have a smart sports complex where there is coaching for tennis going on. A lot more public tennis courts are required. Because still, while we say that we have improved a great deal, it is not enough. So, we need public infrastructure, sporting infrastructure.”
🗹Trusting the process and designing a program to help youth who are not yet at the level required could be the route for potential and talent to not die before it really got a chance to live.
ꦏIndia has talent. It has potential. It has spirit, and possibility too. It also has the ability to fly with sky being the limit, but it will, if it is allowed to.
