CHENNAI: After an entire generation, the Chennai Open will leave the southern metropolis. Its organisers IMGR have informed the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA), which hosted the tournament for two decades, about the move to Pune, Maharashtra.
And therefore, the Chennai Open will now be called the Maharashtra Tennis Open and be hosted by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA).
The deal will be for five years, a source in the know told New Indian Express on Thursday.
The Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA), which had signed a three-year deal to host the tournament, said it will consult lawyers on how to proceed to the abrupt move. “We will take appropriate action,” TNTA CEO Hiten Joshi said.
In Pune, the total prize money on offer is going to jump to close to $550,000, a source confirmed to New Indian Express. That's a bump of more than $100,000. The Chennai Open used to offer a purse of $447,480.
The source revealed that initial discussions to take the event to Pune started three months ago. “We will be holding the event in the first week of January,” the source said.
For 21 years, the Chennai Open was only annual ATP event held in India and saw big names like Rafa Nadal and Stan Wawrinka play here over the years.
“The Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) received an email from IMGR cancelling the contract to conduct the ATP event in 2018 and 2019,” Hiten Joshi said in an email.
While the move to Pune was effected in a swift manner after initial murmurs, behind-the-scenes work had been going on for more than a few months. “After the completion of the Aircel Chennai Open 2017, TNTA informed IMGR that Aircel would no longer be the title sponsor for the Chennai Open as they would be merging their telecom operations with the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group,” the TNTA mail further read.
But TNTA assured IMGR that the balance funds needed to run the event would be secured. “The TNTA had told IMGR that they should find a title sponsor for the Chennai Open in 2018 & the TNTA would raise the balance funds with the help of the Tamil Nadu government & other local sponsors and would live up to its obligations under the contract to conduct Chennai Open until 2019,” the email said.
But IMGR pulled the plug anyway to take Chennai’s signature tennis event to Pune.
TNTA's full statement
After the completion of Aircel Chennai Open 2017 TNTA informed IMGR that Aircel will no longer be the title sponsor for Chennai Open as they will be merging their telecom operations with Anil Ambani's Reliance Company. IMGR is a joint venture between IMG (an International Company) which owns the ATP sanction for the Chennai Open & Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Group.
TNTA had told IMGR that they should find a title sponsor for Chennai Open in 2018 & TNTA would raise the balance funds with the help of the Tamil Nadu Government & other local sponsors and would live up to its obligations under the contract to conduct Chennai Open until 2019.
TNTA has just received an email from IMGR cancelling the Contract to conduct the ATP event in 2018 & 19. TNTA will consult its legal counsel and take appropriate action.
TNTA at the same time sends its best wishes for the conduct of the ATP event in Pune.
TNTA has kept the concerned officials of the Tamil Nadu Government suitably informed and reiterated its commitment to conducting more International events in Chennai and other centres in Tamil Nadu.
An era has passed but TNTA as always will continue to work for the benefit of Tennis in Tamil Nadu.
TNTA would like to place on record the support received from our former Chief Minister the late J. Jayalalithaa. TNTA also thanks the Government of Tamil Nadu and all the sponsors who have supported Chennai Open during the last 21 years and looks forward to working with them in the near future.
TNTA also appreciates the cooperation of SDAT for all the years.
TNTA also thanks the Tennis loving public of Chennai for their support for the last 21 years and assures them that TNTA will soon come out with a plan for conducting International events with the support of the Tamil Nadu Government.
Hiten Joshi.
Chief Executive Officer
Chennai Open highlights
· India's only annual ATP event
· Started in 1997
· Four-time Grand Slam champ Stan Wawrinka won this title four times
· Rafael Nadal played in 2008 and finished runner-up
· Former French Open champ Carlos Moya won it in 2004 and 2005
· Somdev Devvarman was the only Indian finalist. Lost to Marin Cilic in 2009
· Indian pairs won the doubles title seven times