Leander Paes has preferred the Brisbane International over India's only ATP event, the Chennai Open, and the fans will definitely miss him, but tournament organisers said they have learnt to live without India's most celebrated player.
Chennai Open, starting Monday, is now India's only ATP Tour event and it is the third time in four years that Paes has decided to skip the event.
The officials of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA), which organises the event, are not expressing their disappointment openly and are relying on a strong singles field to pull crowds to the courts.
Speculations are rife that appearance money could be a factor in Paes giving a miss to the USD 450,000 doubles event in Chennai.
"As far as we are concerned we have learnt to live without Leander. In 2009 he lost in the first round. In 2007 he did not come and did not turn up for 2008 event as well. So we have learnt to live without him," C B N Reddy, the TNTA secretary said.
Paes, winner of 10 Grand Slam titles, has said that he wants to play in Brisbane event to get used to the Australian conditions to give himself a better chance to win the Australian Open men's doubles, the only title missing from his Majors tally.
But Reddy said that Paes has not specified any reasons for his absence.
"He has not told us any reason. Only he can tell why he is not playing. Our representative personally contacted him and requested him to play. We would love to have him play here. But he did not want to play. What do we do?
"We have a good singles draw and people would come and watch those players," Reddy said.
Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy have been given the top billing at the Brisbane event.
Defending champion and World No 14 Marin Cilic, 2009 French Open finalist Robin Soderling of Sweden and India's own tennis star Somdev Devvarman are part of a solid singles draw.
P Karti Chidambaram, the chairman of the organizing committee, said they made every effort to bring Paes to the Chennai Open.
"There is still time to sign up for the doubles by 6 pm today. May be he will sign up. But even in the past this tournament has gone on without him.
"I had a frank and fair discussion with him. He expressed his views and I expressed mine. I told him that this India's only ATP event and asked for his support," Chidambaram said without revealing the matter of discussion.
On being asked if appearance money was an issue, Chidambaram, who is also vice president of the All India Tennis Association, refused to answer the query.
"We would be happy to have him but can't do much. As orgainsers we try to bring good Indian players to the tournament," he said.
Reacting to Paes's reported reason of skipping the event, Chidambaram said, "Many players who are competing in Chennai would go and play at the Australian Open."
Appearance money has been an issue in Indian tennis.
In 2008 when Sania Mirza decided to skip the WTA Bangalore Open to avoid being dragged into controversies, it was said that appearance money was a reason behind her decision.
