New Delhi, Dec 24: In these recession-driven times, sport has taken a severe beating; no big events and no corporates willing to spend dollars to get tournaments off the ground. Tennis pros may have a tough time finding out which tournaments are on or which tournaments have been taken off the year's calendar, but if they look at the Indian calendar for 1999, they will have every reason to be optimistic.There are about US$900,000 to be won in India next year. Men apart, there are enough incentives for the women pro to plan a trip to India. All these years, women had nothing to play for here. But now, the total pickings stand at $160,000. And with talk of more Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments coming in, the tennis scene in the country is showing signs of life.Even considering last-minute withdrawals and cancellations, the money, and the points, to be earned in the country is something which the pros would have been looking for. Earlier, they had to travel to earn points which meant they had tohave sources to cover expenses. For Indians trying to make their mark on the ATP Tour, there couldn't have been a better scenario.Of course, the crown jewel is the $430,000 Tour event at Chennai in April next. But then there are Futures, Satellites and Challengers where lesser ranked players can get a chance to play and, in the process, worm their way into the ATP Computer.The classic case of this year's Most Improved Indian player Prahlad Srinath is a pointer how an Indian can make points even while playing in India. He won one leg of the Satellites and reached the final of the second. And along with a quarterfinal showing in the Ahmedabad Challenger, he has overtaken Mahesh Bhupathi as the second best ranked player in the country.Next year, there will be five Challengers and with the winner getting 60 points each, there are 300 points to be won on Challengers alone. Even a third of the points won would do wonders to Indians' careers.Meanwhile, with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) bringingin more women's tournaments for the first time this year, Indian women have entered the WTA computer. India's number one Nirupama Vaidyanathan had a quarterfinal showing in the $75,000 tournament in New Delhi this year. If proposals from India to the WTA is any indication, Nirupama and others can look forward to earning more WTA points playing at home.
