Mahesh Bhupathi with wife Shweta at a city hotel on Saturday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Calcutta: Mahesh Bhupathi had promised the city a ?grand tennis event? sometime next year. Well, if everything goes to script, a WTA Tour event will be held in the city next September.

It will be a Tier III meet with a prize-money of $220,000 ? similar to the one which Bhupathi?s company Globosport organises in Hyderabad and the ongoing Bali championship where US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova is competing.

Though it?s the lowest level of the WTA Tour events structure, Bhupathi is confident of roping in three top-20 players for the city meet. Of course, it?s still too early to drop names as the proposed event is an entire year away. None can say which players will form the top-20 in the WTA computer 10-11 months down the line.

The September dates mean it has to be an indoor affair. A renovated and refurbished Netaji Indoor Stadium is what Bhupathi is looking at. He has been promised ?all help? by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, whom he?ll meet a second time before leaving city on Tuesday.

?We are working hard to get the event to Calcutta? I?m certain it can be done successfully here,? Bhupathi said, brushing off suggestions that a women?s tennis meet will flop in the city of cricket and soccer.