Kickstarting Serena Williams' journey back to World No. 1, possible future ATP events in India & more: Bengaluru Open director tells all in Exclusive

The Indian rung of the ATP Challenger Tour came to an end at last week's Bengaluru Open. The 125-level event, which saw several players who have contested the main draws of Grand Slam tournaments in action, received great fanfare from the Bangalore crowd.

Top American prospect Brandon Holt went all the way in men's singles at the ATP Challenger event organized by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), dropping just one set en route. The tournament also saw home hope Anirudh Chandrasekar lift his ninth doubles and fourth Challenger-level trophy with Taiwan's Ray Ho.

Unexpectedly, the event in Bangalore was successful and grabbed a lot of attention in the country. Notably, an Indian Soccer League (ISL) fixture between Bengaluru F.C. and Chennaiyin F.C. and the Indian cricket team's Champions Trophy campaign were also held in the same week.

However, Bengaluru Open Director and Joint Secretary of KSLTA, Sunil Yajaman, delivered a tennis marvel regardless of football and cricket's monopoly over Indian sports fans, with his seamless organization, hospitality, and top-notch facilities at their stadium.

Towards the end of the ATP Challenger tournament, Sportskeeda had a chance to sit with Mr. Yajaman for a candid talk on a variety of topics, which included prospective future tour-level events in India, Serena Williams' tryst with Bangalore before her 2008 comeback, and supporting young Indian players.

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Exclusive chat with Bengaluru Open director Sunil Yajaman

Sportskeeda: What are the current plans for pro tennis in Bangalore?

Mr. Yajaman: This is the ninth edition of the ATP Challenger tour, and it has grown. The first Bengaluru Open was a $50,000 tournament, and today, it's near $200,000, and this is literally one step below the ATP Tour because the next category is the ATP 175, but they're not giving it as [it's] not open for everybody. They only have a few weeks slotted in a year, which the ATP does just before the Masters, right?

And with regards to the ATP tour, I'm sure Bangalore as a global city definitely deserves an annual event. But, as you know, it's not easy to get these tournaments. Limited tournaments are owned by some promoter or the other. If there is an issue somewhere, we can always take it and do it here. But we'll always be looking for one (a tour-level event), and I'm sure that we would love to have any ATP Tour event here in Bangalore.

The upcoming ITF M25 is a routine tournament that we've been doing for many years now. Every year, we conduct at least 5-6 ITF events in Karnataka. So this is a $30,000 prize money event that we are doing at the end of March.

Sportskeeda: Many fans are unaware of India's rich tennis culture from the past, when we used to host tour events annually in Chennai and Mumbai. What's your experience with these tournaments, whether it was watching them as a spectator or working at these tournaments?

Mr. Yajaman: I was involved with the first Chennai Open when it happened in 1997. I was a part of the tournament team. And after that, yes, I've also gone there and watched matches as a fan. It was an amazing tournament and very, very well organized and we had a lot of players, good players when Boris Becker came and played there, [Yevgeny] Kafelnikov played there. I think it was an amazing event.

Unfortunately, after 21 years, it had to move to Pune, but then from Pune, [it] moved to Hong Kong. So India lost that ATP Tour event, but it's good to have these big events because it generates a buzz and interest in the sport in the country, right? While we continue to do that, obviously, there will be a few players who take complete advantage of it and do well in these events, like how Somdev did it.

Sportskeeda: Tell us something about Bangalore's tennis culture.

Mr. Yajaman: I think Bangalore really is a big tennis-loving city because historically, there are a lot of clubs here in Bangalore and every club has tennis courts. So tennis culture was always there and a lot of interests, a lot of players from Bangalore in the national level and, you know, Rohan Bopanna came up and things like that. I think the culture was always there in Bangalore.

The KSLTA campus overlooking UB City, Bangalore | Image Credits: Deepthi Indukuri

I think informally, I can say that probably Bangalore has got the highest number of coaching centers in India, in a single city. So the tennis culture is growing, I feel... A lot of kids playing tennis, so hopefully, you know, we will start producing more players for the international scene.

Sportskeeda: What was your motivation behind offering young players like Manas and Prajwal Dev wildcards in singles at the 2025 DafaNews Bengaluru Open?

Bengaluru Open director Mr. Yajaman: We had confidence in these boys. Manas [Dhamne] is obviously a young kid and he's still in his teens; he's putting in a lot of effort. He's based in Italy, he's training there, and just two weeks ago, he won a $15,000 ITF event in Tunisia.

Prajwal has been an amazing player. Especially for Karnataka, hailing from Mysuru, a smaller town, and he is actually taking Karnataka very high in the National Games in its last three editions. He has ensured that we have won gold medals.

So we had to reward him and we knew we had the confidence. 'Put them in the ocean and they'll learn how to swim.' Prajwal played an amazing match against a player ranked 259th (losing in Bengaluru Open 1R to Mark Gengel) and losing very narrowly. The same thing with Manas [who lost to Bengaluru Open quarterfinalist Petr Bar Biryukov 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(4)].

Sportskeeda: Tell us about your experience of managing WTA Bangalore Open in 2007-08. Not many would know that Serena Williams won the 2008 edition of the tournament.

Mr. Yajaman: For three years, we had a WTA Tour event here. In 2008, we were fortunate that we were offered a Tier-II event by the WTA with $600,000 prize money. We hosted that and with all the challenges that we had, yes, Serena, Venus... both the sisters don't play in one tournament. It's very, very rare when they do.

So both of them came and played here. Jelena Jankovic was here, Patty Schnyder, Vera Zvonareva was here, so I think it was an amazing field. Serena, at that time, had gone beyond a hundred in the WTA rankings. So, kind of, at the Bangalore Open, she won that tournament and that was her journey back to her No. 1 after that.