TNTA president Vijay Amritraj (right) with Siva B Meyyanathan, Minister for Environment-Climate Change and Youth Welfare and Sports, Tamil Nadu at an event in Chennai on Tuesday | Ashwin Prasath
CHENNAI: If Vijay Amritraj has his way, the city could be in line to host a WTA 500 event after the 2024 edition of the Australian Open. It’s still very early days in the talking process but the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) president is of the opinion that there is an ‘outside chance’ to host it.
“Outside chance of a potential WTA 500 event in February 2023,” he said in an interaction with journalists on Tuesday. While there are specific pre-requisites before hosting a 500-level event, Amritraj said that the facilities on offer at SDAT meets it.
“I have told them what we have and they say ‘we can do it’.” If Chennai is to be successful in hosting a WTA 500 event, it will be the biggest tennis event to be held in the country in terms of prize money as well as prestige.
While officially announcing the playing field for India’s first WTA 250 meet, the SDAT stadium will host it from September 10 to 18, Amritraj also mentioned that if the 500 event is to take place, he wouldn’t mind missing out on a 250 event next year.
“We would lose 2023. I don’t want to run one in September/October (2023) if I can get one for February 2024 and there is an outside chance for that to be a WTA 500 event,” he said.
Bouchard given wild card
Speaking on the player field for the upcoming event, Amritraj revealed that 2014 Wimbledon finalist, Eugenie Bouchard, has been handed a wild card. The 28-year-old does not have a singles ranking because of a serious shoulder injury. Before taking part in a low-level meet in Vancouver last week, she hadn’t played since March 2021.
Now back on the comeback trail, she will feature in the qualifiers of the US Open. The second of the four wild cards has been given to Ankita Raina, India’s No 1. Two more wild cards could be handed to players ranked inside the top 20 if they wish to take part.
One of Amritraj’s main goals since was to bring a WTA meet to the city. Now that he has succeeded in doing it, the next goal is restoring the ATP 250 meet. With the state government pushing aggressively for it as well, he is hopeful of bringing it back but it isn’t as simple as rubbing a magic lamp.
“The windows are small and the calendars are tight,” he said.
