Consecutive ATP tournaments must become a regular phenomenon, feels India's top tennis players

New Delhi: India's top tennis players today hailed hosting of the three back-to-back ATP Challenger events in the country and demanded that such tournaments become a regular phenomenon on the calendar to help them climb up the ranking ladder.

The final and biggest tournament began today with the ONGC-GAIL Delhi Open, which offers USD 14,400 to the winner and 100 ATP ranking points. The events in Chennai and Kolkata were USD 50,000 tournaments.

There are not enough Challenger level tournaments in the Asian region and it becomes extremely tough for the players to travel and compete on European circuit.

India have been hosting a lot of ITF Futures tournaments throughout the year but for the players, who are outside top-150, it becomes tough to be part of the good field.

The Delhi Open has two top-100 players and six more inside top-160. AITA has awarded singles wild cards to Sanam Singh (352), Saketh Myneni (293), Ramkumar Ramanathan (407) and Karunuday Singh (483), who could not have made it to the main draw on their current rankings.

"After 2008, we are playing (back-to-back) Challengers in India, so it's nice for all of us. Every single Indian player is committed to play all three. First week, we saw eight players in main draw and four of them made the quarterfinals. Yuki won singles and doubles," India's top singles player Somdev Devvarman said.

"Last week, Sanam and Saketh won the doubles. It's not just the Indian presence but we are trying to do well which does not happen that often abroad. It's a good step forward," he added.

India's next big hope Yuki Bhambri, who won the Chennai leg, and Sanam Singh said they need such events on regular basis.

"It's so good to see a USD 100,000 in Delhi itself. I would love to play here more and hope this is not just one-off (thing) and (we are) not having Challengers in the next five years. Hopefully, it happens every year," Yuki said.

Added Sanam, "It's a great opportunity. Both and Yuki and Somdev are in top-150 but there are six or seven guys who are in 250 and 500, so even for them to have some bigger tournaments here is awesome. Even if they have to go through Qualifiers, someone makes a run to the quarters, will make some jump in the rankings. This is great for players."