But there could be something really big happening in Calcutta this December if Paes En Sport, an event management company run by Dr Vece Paes, manages to pull off the coup they promise.

Prasenjit Chatterjee, Director of the tennis tournament division of Paes En Sport says that a plan to have a World Doubles Championship in Calcutta, on the lines of Hartford, is in the pipeline.

Of course, the stakes will not include ATP points but the cream of world doubles promises to be there. The fact that Leander Paes is on the Board of Directors of the company, is the clincher. Apparently, the flying Dutchmen, Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis, who are splitting at the end of theseason, have already been briefed about it and most of the other top teams too are not averse to the idea. Only, they want it scheduled before Christmas.

Coming back to the Asia Cup, Leander's father, Dr Vece Paes, speaking from his Calcutta residence said, "We'll weigh the options after Hartford." Understandably guarded about the issue, the farthest he went was to say, "Asia Cup is not exactly on our priority list, but we are speaking to AITA about it."

Further, since the Delhi event comes just before the Asian Games, it makes it even more unattractive for Leander. As Dr Paes says, " Basically, the Asian Games and Asia Cup will have the same guys playing, so in that sense, Asia Cup is redundant this time, unlike last year."

Challengers in the offing

India will host at least four Challengers in the coming season. Three of them have been bagged by Paes En Sport and all carry a purse of $75,000 each and are scheduled early next year. The first is slotted for February 1-6 in Lucknow while thesecond will be in Calcutta from February 8-13. The venue and dates for the third are yet undecided though the tournament is definitely on. Paes En Sport will also be doing the event management for the grasscourt Nationals at Calcutta this December.

Meanwhile, Anil Khanna, chairman of the Davis Cup selection committee, is also bearish about a $ 25,000 (plus hospitality) Challenger in Delhi the week immediately after the ATP extravaganza in Chennai next April.