As Chennai gets ready to kick-start the tennis season in a week’s time with the 20th edition of the Chennai Open, the tournament will see the debut of a new set of rules, one of which is the reduction of the size of the qualifying draw from 32 to 16 for the ATP Tour’s 250-grade events.
It is a change that will affect the local players significantly.
One of the stories of the 2015 edition was that of local boy Vijay Sundar Prashanth defeating higher-ranked compatriot Yuki Bhambri in qualifying to make it to the main draw of the event.
Speaking to the The Hindu , Vijay Sundar said: “The decision to reduce the field came as a shock to me. I understand where they are coming from, with a desire to finish qualifying on Saturday and Sunday and to also improve the quality of the field.
“But this means there will be few surprises in the main draw of the event; it restricts a lot of players from playing in high-ranking ATP tournaments.”
Highlighting his own case from 2015, Vijay Sundar added: “Without a draw of 32, I would have not made the qualifying draw last year. And, now, without a wild-card for qualifying, I don’t have any chances of playing the tournament this year.”
Since that defeat in January, Bhambri has done well to reach a career-best ranking of 88 — he is currently ranked 93 — which will see him lead the Indian charge at the Chennai Open after he secured a direct entry into the main draw.
On the new rule, the 22-year old said: “When the ATP conducted a survey about this, I voted against it as this move will reduce the chances for lower-ranked players to take part in ATP events.”
He however added that a higher-ranked player in qualifying will now have to play only two matches and will be fresher for the main draw.
With the qualifying cut-off ranking expected to be around 175 this year, Indian Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj said he was not impressed with the change.
“This move will help put more money in the two rounds of qualifying, but viewing it personally, it is a disappointing for Indian players,” he said. “As Davis Cup captain, it would have given me a chance to have a look at some of the Indian players like Sumit Nagal.”
Amritraj also added that the size of the draw could have been trimmed to 24 if the ATP wanted to streamline the draw, instead of drastically cutting it by half.
TNTA vice-president Karti Chidambaram said the pruning of the draw had been in the works for two years.
“I have been part of the discussions at the ATP,” Karti said. “This move will help improve quality and also reduce costs because the organisers have to bear the hospitality expenses of the players in qualifying field.”
While Karti admitted this would hurt the local players, he said: “There are a lot of non-qualified players ranked around 800, and they should probably be playing Futures and Challengers first to improve their rankings.”
The one positive aspect for players in the lower rungs is that with the new rules, even qualifying will be a closed-entry affair, with no spot entries.
This would help players know in advance if they have made the cut, which helps in reducing uncertainty and needless travel to tournaments only to learn they have not made it.
