PUNE: In what can be seen as a major course-correction, the All India Tennis Association has allowed two UTR professional tennis events to be held in the country later this year.
"India will hold a women's $25,000 event on November 7-13, followed by a men's $25,000 event from December 18-25," the UTR said in a press statement.
The women's event is set to be held in New Delhi and the men's event in Indore.
It marks a volte face on the part of AITA, which had barred UTR events in the country last year.
AITA honorary secretary Anil Dhupar said the federation would not be rushed into allotting UTR events and would assess the impact of the two events before proceeding further.
"We are trying one men's and one women's event to begin with. Let us see how our players benefit -- financially and career-building wise," Dhupar said.
As to what brought about the change in AITA's stance, Dhupar said: "The world is going with the UTR. There are 32 countries that are hosting these events. We had a discussion with them during Wimbledon."
He said that AITA would not sanction junior UTR events.
"Any UTR event would have to go through AITA. We have a strong junior circuit with Asian B1 and B2 tournaments. We have a packed calendar with over 400 tournaments," he said.
The UTR, short for Universal Tennis Ranking, is a rating system that aims to provide a global indicator of a player's level regardless of age, gender and geography.
Unlike the traditional ranking system, the UTR takes into account the most recent form, the standard of the opponent and other such data while rating a player's performance.
While it originally aimed to help juniors and those players beyond the professional tours, UTR has gone on to establish a professional circuit, the Pro Tennis Tour (PTT), as well.
PTT events have draws similar to those of the ITF's but with a different format: the 32 players are divided into four groups of eight with each player guaranteed a minimum of three matches before the knock-out round begins.
Each player also gets a guaranteed prize money.
