ATF launching Asian Tennis Tour

KARACHI: Only 30 Asian players made a living from tennis although 136 professional tournaments were held in Asia in 2015 offering prize money of $17.018 million.

This forced Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) to launch Asian Tennis Tour as Development Initiative for the Asian players. The federation’s Board of Directors took this decision in a meeting in Doha recently.

“The tour has been designed with the objective of providing development pathway for the Asian players and enhance competitive opportunities in Asia,” stated ATF in a press statement. “It aims to fill up the void between the national and international professional circuit,” it added.

In the existing setup, a lot of challenges are being faced by the players as well as the thousands of volunteers and organisers supporting the sport.

“Based on an ITF study, it is stated that globally only the top 336 players make a living from the sport,” stated ATF. 

ATF said that among these there were only 30 Asian players, as per the statistics of January 2016. “This small number comes about at a time when Asia in 2015 held 136 professional tennis tournaments offering total prize money of $17,018,565,” stated ATF. 

Only seven percent of the above figure constitutes the prize money component of the ITF Futures — which are seen to be the base step for players vying to make it big in the professional circuit.

There is dropout of players predominantly transitioning from junior to pro circuit and even otherwise they face financial pressure to remain in the sport. “The need of the hour is to create a platform which bridges the gap for lower ranked players and provides them realistic avenues to sustain a career in tennis,” stated ATF. 

To address the above issues and to help and support Asian players, the federation stated, a development initiative in form of a closed tournament structure has been launched. “The ATT is conceptualized to act as the springboard for Asian players as they set out on the road to Professional Tennis and contribute in building a self sustaining Tennis Ecosystem in Asia,” stated ATF.

Asian Tennis Tour Structure will offer two categories: Category 1 event offers prize money of $5000 plus $2000 as travelling/support allowance to players; Category 2 event offers prize money of $7500 plus $2000 as travelling/support allowance to players.  

“Category 1 events are to be held in succession of two events spread in one week while category 2 event is a standalone event spread in a week. ATF has commitments from the national federations of Asia and we hope to host at least 40 to 50 events from April to December 2016,” stated ATF.  The inaugural event of the Tour is being held from April 18 in New Delhi.