Tennis lovers in the city will be happy to know that Mumbai will be hosting a Women’s Tennis Association Tour (WTA) 125K Series event in November. The authorities acknowledge the help of the state government for taking tennis in Maharashtra to a stage where the cities are organising events on a bigger scale.  

“There is full-fledged support from the state government for the sport. It is a huge international event and it is because of the government that we have able to pull out such a big event in Mumbai,” expresses MSLTA secretary general, Sundar Iyer.

Coming to India after 5 years, the event will be Mumbai’s first ever WTA tournament. Fortune is smiling upon Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) with the news coming right after the organization announced ‘Maharashtra Open’ a week ago as it bagged the rights of India’s ATP event.

While speaking about the scope for Indian players in the tournament, Iyer says, “We are looking for at least two top players in the top 50 and high cut-off. We will have 4 Indians players as wild cards in main draw and 4 in qualifying. On top of it, two (Indian players) in doubles which will give great opportunities to our players to match their skills with international players.” Prashant Sutar, MSLTA director (development committee), said if a proposal is put before corporates and the government with the “right vision”, it’s not difficult to raise money.

“It will be exciting for the young tennis players of the city to witness professional top tennis players. They will learn from the best by watching and asking questions, it will have an extremely positive impact on junior players,” he adds. The tournament will be held from November 18 to 26 later this year at CCI Tennis Courts.

“We have a good crop of players with junior players like Mihika Yadav who played at junior Wimbledon. Rutuja Bhosale, who is back from playing college tennis in US, was ranked in top 400 earlier and now making a comeback and ranked around 700 in just 3 events. We also have players in the likes of Kanika Vaidya, Prarthana Thombare who played Olympics at Rio with Sania Mirza and Kyra Shroff who is doing well in doubles currently. Snehal Mane is another prospect in women’s tennis who can make a name in the coming years,” explains Iyer.