The wild card in tennis tournaments is a prerogative of the tournament
director and officials to ensure home players, young newcomers and
players coming back from injury or a break can directly enter the main
draw. And there is a lot of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing
that goes into the decisioning of the wild card awardees. Sports
managers, tournament sponsors and tournament directors all like to
have a say in the final selection – which often means that not all
deserving candidates make the final cut. Organizers of this year's
Chennai Open have awarded their three wild cards to world no. 21
Stanislas Wawrinka (more than deserving considering he is a big draw
for the fans and also reached the Chennai finals last year), 18 year
old local hope Yuki Bhambri (again deserving given that he is India's
brightest young talent by far in the men's game) and surprisingly
Rohan Bopanna.
Not many eyebrows have been raised at the decision to award Bopanna a
wild card given that he is a top doubles player (having reached the
final of the US Open men's doubles in August) and also won the
deciding fifth rubber in India's Davis Cup victory over Brazil,
upsetting then world no. 75 Ricardo Mello a few months ago in Chennai
itself. But scratching deeper might give one a different perspective.
Bopanna is currently the ninth highest ranked Indian on the ATP list
and excluding Davis Cup, he played a total of 7 singles events last
year, finishing with a 7-7 record on the tour, highlighted by
qualifying for the Halle grass court championships in June. Bopanna
started the 2010 ranked 83 in doubles and with the success that he has
had with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, he is going to find it even tougher
this year to concentrate on singles. Given that and his age (at 30,
his best days as a singles player are probably behind him), and you
probably think that the third wild card could have been given to a
more deserving candidate.
India's #2 ranked player on the ATP rankings is Karan Rastogi, at 24
six years younger than Bopanna, and ranked 332 in the ATP rankings,
nearly 300 places above Bopanna. Rastogi finished 2010 with a 41-21
record and had missed 18 months in 2008-09 after undergoing back
surgery. He went from unranked in October 2009 to his current ranking
of 332, winning 2 ITF futures besides reaching the finals of three
others – and ended the year reaching back to back finals in the ITF
Futures in Nigeria winning the last of them.
Another overlooked candidate is 23 year old Vishnu Vardhan, currently
ranked 386 in the ATP rankings. Vardhan finished the year with a 37-19
record, having reached 2 ITF Futures finals in 2010 and 3 more semi
finals including one at the Uzbekistan Challenger.
Both Rastogi and Vardhan are better singles prospects and a wild card
into the main draw could have given them the same boost that it gave
Somdev a couple of years ago. Somdev ranked # 202 in January 2009
made maximum advantage of his wild card as he marched on to the final
that year and is today India's top player at 108, having peaked at #95
a few months ago. Hence, the decision to give this opportunity to a
doubles specialist seems surprising to say the least. Rastogi and
Vardhan both had to go to the qualifying draw where Rastogi lost in
the first round while Vardhan was beaten in the second round today
(you need to win 3 matches to qualify the main draw). The two will now
continue to grind the lower rungs of the world tennis circuit while
Bopanna will move to the main ATP tour pit stops to focus on his quest
for Grand Slam doubles glory. The players have their priorities
right. Unfortunately for them, the tournament organizers do not.
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