India need top-50 women's singles player to have big WTA event: Bhupathi

Multiple Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi says for India to host big-ticket WTA events, the country needs to produce a top-50 women's singles player, who can bring the fans to the stadium.

India has just one WTA event -- USD 125,000 Mumbai Open -- but has a number of ITF 25k events, most of them hosted by MSLTA.

Bhupathi cited example of Sania Mirza, who he says was their sole reason to bring Hyderabad Open in 2005.

India also hosted WTA tier III Sunfeast Open from 2004 to 2008 but since then there are hardly any WTA events in country.

"When Sania was playing, there were a lot of people watching. In any sport, you need to have a champion to champion the sport. In badminton, Saina did well, now Sindhu and Kashyap and all are doing well. We don't have a girl in the top 50 to champion a WTA event," Bhupathi said.

"We were fortuitous about the timing of our WTA event. We went and chased WTA event and brought it to India because of Sania's breakthrough."
"In Davis Cup, you always try and play to the strengths of your team and when Somdev became No 1, grass was not an option anymore. Now the team we have, grass suits a lot of the players and we are happy to be back."
"We are just happy to be playing a big match at home and obviously Kolkata for me is a special place, where I made my debut. There is so much amazing tradition in tennis here."
Having made his debut in Kolkata, Bhupathi said: "It's sad, it's been a long time. There's so much tradition here and we enjoy playing."
"The format is altered so regardless of what anybody says, it is what it is today. As a Davis Cup captain I take the rules and our team tries to win by the rules, that is the bottom-line."