Vijay Amritraj hopes to pull off hosting WTA 250 Chennai Open without hiccups

Tour-level women’s tennis is set to return to India after three years as the city will play host to the Chennai Open — a WTA 250 event — from October 27 to November 2.

A budget of INR 12 crore — including the prize money of roughly INR 2.4 crore, licensing fees, appearance fees of some top players and renovation of the stadium — has been allotted for the same, announced Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Deputy Chief Minister and Sports Minister of Tamil Nadu, during a press conference on Thursday.

The tournament was previously held on a single-year license in 2022 when the then 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova of Czechia won her maiden title. The upcoming edition takes place in the Centenary year of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA).

TNTA President and Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj made the arrangement with Octagon, the sports agency which holds the three-year license for the event, to shift the tournament from Mexico this year. However, he is aware of the challenges lying ahead apart from the usual renovation of the venue, the SDAT Stadium in Nungambakkam, as per WTA standards.

“The Met (India Meteorological Department) is expecting nine days of rain in October,” said the 71-year-old Amritraj.

“Only the North Stand (The pavilion on Centre Court named after Amritraj) is covered. Other than that, we will have to look after everything else. We want to make it a very artsy atmosphere and create an environment so that people and children can come.”

FILE PHOTO: Amritaj also hinted that despite being a home event, Indian players might have to go through qualifiers in order to make it to the main draw except Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi.
| Photo Credit:
EMMANUAL YOGINI

Another factor which may affect the tournament will be the availability of top players since two other WTA 250 events in Hong Kong and Jiangxi, China, will take place during the same week. The season-ending WTA Finals begin from November 1 in Riyadh, making it virtually impossible for any Top 10 player to show up in Chennai.

However, the fact that Octagon also represents and manages some established names such as World No. 19 Clara Tauson (Denmark), World No. 39 Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine), World No. 52 Donna Vekic (Croatia) and former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu (Canada) is expected to help solve that issue.

Amritaj also hinted that despite being a home event, Indian players might have to go through qualifiers in order to make it to the main draw except Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi. The 16-year-old Maaya reached the semifinals of a WTA 125 event in Mumbai as a qualifier earlier this year and currently trains at the prestigious Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca.

“We will split the main draw wildcards with Octagon. Octagon also has its needs but no issues. You don’t want to put someone in the field when truly, you’re not qualified to be in the field. Every Indian hopes to get into a tournament because of a wildcard. We had the ATP tournament for so long (from 1997 to 2017 in Chennai) and constantly, we were giving wildcards. On the odd occasion, someone got a direct entry or he came through the qualifying. So, qualifying would be a much better place for them to compete with players that they might have a chance against. Maaya might be the only one who has a really good chance (of a main draw wildcard),” said Amritraj.

Overall, Amritraj hopes everything goes well so that the event can stay in the city. “The government is happy to support the event for two years but WTA has only granted us operation for one year mainly because of this rain issue. As far as I’m concerned, we run it this year the best we can like we did in 2022 and keep our fingers crossed on the weather,” he said.