The All India Tennis Association (AITA) on Wednesday announced that it has lined up 13 international tournaments at home, including four ATP Challengers and a WTA 125 event in the first quarter of the 2025 season, offering a combined prize purse of nearly Rs 10 crore and 1100 ranking points.
Three back-to-back ITF events for women will be held in January 2025, starting with a USD 40,000 tournament in New Delhi from January 13, a USD 100,000 event in Bengaluru from January 20 and a USD 70,000 event in Pune.
Mumbai will host the second edition of L&T Mumbai Open from February 3.
“These four tournaments will offer over 350 WTA points and a combined prize purse of USD 350000 with a great opportunity for Indian women players to accelerate their growth,” an AITA release said.
A team of new office bearers was recently elected to manage the federation but the results of the election was not announced on the direction of the Delhi High Court which is hearing a petition challenging the validity of the poll.
“The AITA representatives in a recent meeting with the WTA, ATP and ITF officials put forward India’s case for more tournaments. The global leaders readily agreed to support AITA’s endeavour in hosting tournaments for both men and women,” the release added.
The ATP Challenger events are scheduled for the month of February in Chennai (from February 3), Bengaluru (from February 10), Pune (from February 17) and New Delhi (from February 24) but the dates are subject to confirmation from the ATP Challenger Tour team.
AITA will also host one ITF men’s event in January and four back-to-back events in March. The venues will be announced soon.
“Overall, the women tournaments are worth USD 475000 with 500 WTA ranking points on offer while the men tournaments are worth USD 590,000 with 600 ATP ranking points at stake.
“The AITA team is also involved in discussions to bring at least 24 ITF events (men and women combined) to India and is committed to create a robust ATP Challenger circuit for the men’s players.
“The AITA team understands the concerns of the players, and the tennis fraternity and is determined to further grow the tennis landscape in India,” AITA said in the statement.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)