Tata Open Maharashtra tournament director hints at tweaking dates for 2021 after ATP rejigs tour calendar

Mumbai: The 2021 Tata Open Maharashtra could be impacted by by the rejig of the ATP calendar forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, hinted tournament director Prashant Sutar on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_4222509” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative image. Reuters[/caption] Tata Open Maharashtra is south Asia’s only ATP tour event. The third edition of the tournament was held from February 3-9 at Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium in Pune. In that edition, Jiri Vesely had emerged victorious in the singles, while the pair of Christopher Rungkat (Indonesia) and Andre Goransson (Sweden) won the doubles. Sutar said the world men’s tennis body, ATP, has been having frequent discussions with its tournament directors around the world in an attempt to get the action back on the courts. “Regarding the 2021 calendar, there have been a lot of discussions that are going on. Lot of communications are happening between ATP and Tournament Directors,” Sutar said during an Insta live session with Indian tennis player Arjun Kadhe. Sutar is also confident of organising the fourth edition of the tournament but feels that the tournament may have to shift considering dates of Laver Cup, ATP Cup and Australian Open which overlap with TOM. Sutar further added that they have to wait for the first draft of the ATP calendar, which will be out in August, to get further clarity on the dates. The tournament has seen the world’s top tennis stars including Leander Paes, Kevin Anderson, Ivo Karlovic and Benoit Paire taking part during its past editions.