Serena Williams playing in India? Laugh if you wish but going by recent trends it may just happen, and as soon as this September, at the WTA event in Kolkata.The city’s inaugural WTA was formally announced today and the star roster mentioned included India’s two brightest young talents Sania Mirza and Shikha Uberoi — and Williams.‘‘Apart from Serena we will try to bring two or three of the top 20 of world tennis’’, Jaideep Mukherjea, former Davis Cup captain appointed tournament director by organisers Globosport, said. Six months ago this would have been dismissed as typical sales spiel. But the Hyderabad WTA — a Tier 4 tournament, with less prize money than the Tier 3 at Kolkata — saw Martina Navratilova in action. And though she’s 48, she’s still winning Slams. Mahesh Bhupathi, whose off-court avatar is being a director of Globosport, says there’s no guarantee of Serena. But that’s because of a technical problem: Whenever there are tournaments of different tiers on at the same time, the world’s four top-ranked players at the time must take part in the highest tier. So if Serena is ranked in the top 4 in September, she must play the Tier 2 event in China, on at the same time as the Kolkata WTA. That apart, though, there’s no reason why Serena should not play. For Mahesh the idea of bringing three Top-20 players gathered steam at the Hyderabad Open. In fact, he says, the idea of Martina returning to India also cropped up. While Martina’s participation rests on her availability, Serena’s chances hinge on goodwill and a monetary factor called the ‘appearance fee.’ Obviously, Martina’s appearance fee is lower than Serena’s would be. However, Bhupathi doesn’t agree that it could be a major deterrent. ‘‘At that level money is just not the objective’’, he said. ‘‘For many of the top players coming to countries like India is more that money.’’ Add to that the changing market scenario: India is now a far better financial lure than, say, five years ago, and is widely identified as the second-largest market, behind China. Ask Team Jordan of Formula 1, whose signing of Narain Karthikeyan had much to do with market forces. Finally, there is the personal factor: If Mahesh Bhupathi can bring Martina to Hyderabad, surely Leander Paes can bring a star to his beloved Kolkata? (With Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay in Kolkata)
