Indian tennis players struggle to reach the pro tour due to a lack of proper training systems and high costs. Balachandran said, “The gap between India and other countries keeps growing.” Players often travel alone without coaches, making it hard to earn money or gain the necessary ranking points.
The Missing System
“The gap between India and other countries keeps growing,” says Balachandran, who heads the Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy (RBTA) coaching team, and works with some of India’s top players such as Adkar and Dhakshineswar Suresh.
“Your game is only one aspect of it. How to use your game for a particular situation against that opponent in given conditions is the key to winning matches. From 17-20 is the most crucial age for tennis players, as they make that transition into the pro tour,” says Balachandran.
“They need the right inputs, like training and tactical awareness to make the jump, at this critical time. “Unfortunately, most Indians don’t have access to that. They travel alone, without coaches and trainers, keep making the same mistakes. The later you breakthrough, the harder it gets because you keep losing money and confidence,” he says.
Tennis is structured in a way that players have to play tournaments to earn money and ranking points. India does not have enough lower-grade tournaments to help them build a base, which means they have to travel abroad, at least around Asia, if not Europe and the US, to play a full tour schedule, which is about 20-25 weeks. That means they have to pay and arrange their travel, accommodation and food, with no guarantee on the returns. Indian legend Vijay Amritraj calls it “the highest-risk business you can be in”.
There are over a thousand players each ranked on the ATP (men’s) and WTA (women’s) charts, and plenty more enter the fray each year. “You make money only if you are in the top 250,” says Rawat, who achieved his highest ranking of 430 in 2019. “For every tournament I play, I spend an average of ₹50,000,” adds Rawat. “That means to play a full tour, and travel just by myself, I need about ₹10 lakh every year.”
Apart from the prize money, the players taking up coaching stints or full-time jobs to supplement their income. “Most players would like to get a job. The ones who don’t have a job are from financially sound backgrounds,” says Manish Sureshkumar, who recently won the national doubles championship. The 27-year-old was on the verge of quitting tennis in 2022, but his love of competition and a job through sports quota with the Income Tax department in Chennai, brought his dream back on track.
On Sunday, October 25, Karan Singh won the M25 Futures event in Mumbai. The conditions in Mumbai were brutal, the AQI diabolical. In three of the quarterfinals, players retired mid-match due to the unrelenting heat. Digvijay Pratap Singh was unable to finish the final as he suffered a heat stroke, fainted on court and had to be taken to the hospital.
Singh, 23, took home a cheque of ₹4,39,062 for winning five matches and capturing the title. Meanwhile, Nagal, who lost the first round of qualifiers at the 2026 US Open earned prize money of US $32,000. That is how big the chasm is, and why players continue to grind it out week on week. They carry the images of the four majors in their mind, a tease and a target.
Deepti Patwardhan
Deepti Patwardhan is a sports writer based in Mumbai. An alumna of Wilson College, Mumbai, she has a Bachelor’s degree in mass media. She has been writing on sports for more than 20 years in traditional as well as online publications. While she writes on a variety of sports, ranging from cricket to chess, tennis is the closest to her heart.A former Hindustan Times reporter, she has been working independently for the last 10 years and written for publications like BBC, Mint Lounge, Firstpost, Fiftytwo.in and The Sporting News. Along with independent media, she has written for official websites like ATP, WTA, Billie Jean King Cup and the ICC. She also contributed an essay on former India hockey captain Rani Rampal for a book on women’s sports, titled “Play It Forward: How Women Are Changing Sports to Change the World”.Growing up in an academics-first household, sport was not just an escape for Deepti but a unique lens to the world and how it intersects with society, culture, politics and geography.In her downtime, she likes cooking, painting and travelling.