The Champions Tennis League must not be perceived as competition to the Mahesh Bhupathi-launched IPTL as CTL is the only way to bring international tennis to India due to a crammed calender, says tennis legend Vijay Amritraj.
After veteran star Bhupathi announced his ambitious league, in which the biggest tennis stars will feature, AITA and Amritraj together launched CTL.
The format of the two leagues is similar but there will be no auction in CTL as a draw will decide the team compositions and it will be over in just 10 days.
"How do you counter something else, there are tournaments back to back. One tournament does not compete with the next tournament. The tournaments end up making a tour.
"The great thing here is that Mahesh has taken initiative to do international tennis across Asia, which is fantastic for Asian cities. We are doing it in India, which will be great for India cities, that's the key element and driving force," Amritraj told PTI from Los Angeles.
Asked if it was mere a coincidence that the two leagues will be played around the same time, Amritraj said, "There is only that much of a window to do it. The advantage is that players can play one or both. If they don't want to play either, it's up to them."
While CTL will be played between November 17 and 26, the IPTL has been scheduled from November 28 to December 20.
Amritraj, who reached the singles quarterfinals at the Wimbledon and the US Open in 1973, said a lot of people have been trying to get another ATP tournament to India but the efforts were not fructifying. Chennai Open is the one and only ATP 250 event the country has.
"The international calender is very full. It's difficult to get an ATP or WTA tournament, so when we were discussing this concept, we were trying to put it together so that we are able to get international tennis in different cities in India.
