Tennis all set to take over Mumbai

Mumbai: Tennis will be the flavour of the season in India's cricket capital. In April after 36 years - Mumbai hosted a Davis Cup tie - and now Mahesh Bhupathi-promoted Globosport is all set to bring an ATP event in Mumbai.

Anirbhan Blah, the Vice President of Globosport says of the event: "It’s not just going to be about tennis, it’s not going to be about sports. I mean we are going to use all of our celebrity management expertise. We will involve Bollywood and promote it in a different manner. And that will create a lot of excitement about the sport of tennis in India."

As the tournament is closer to the ATP championships, the Mumbai Open has been able to attract some of the bigger names on tour.

These include Mario Ancic, Tommy Robredo, Carlos Moya and Nicholas Keifer. Though the organisers do admit there some concerns after the 7/11 blasts.

Anirbhan says: "We’ve got three top ten players, we’ve got Carlos Moya, we’ve got two other top 20 players. And I think we needed to reassure all of them that things are going to go well, they are going to be completely safe and we had to reassure the sponsors who were investing their money that things were going to run smoothly. And as a city we in Mumbai need to send out a message that nothing is going to stop us down and the Mumbai spirit is going to push us through.

The tournament will be held at the CCI. From changing the surface of the court to installing floodlights - work is on in full swing to ensure that all the guidelines for hosting an ATP event are met.

Gaurav Natekar, the tournament director of the Mumbai ATP Open and a former India player says: "The surface here in all honesty was not at all up to international standards. What we’ve really done is put a seven-layered cushioning surface, which not only has truer bounce but also has a sponging effect on the players’ legs."

Mumbai has witnesses a lot of turmoil in the past month, but come September, this city will play host to it’s first ever ATP tournament. Mumbaities will get to see five of world’s top 20 players in action.

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