Chennai To Host WTA Tournament From September 26

Chennai will host a WTA 250 tennis tournament for women from September 26 to October 2. Tamil Nadu Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Siva V Meyyanathan announced the conduct of the tournament in the city. He said the goverment's approval letter to conduct the tourney was handed over by Chief Minister M K Stalin to TNTA president Vijay Amritraj. "Happy news for tennis players and sports lovers is that Chennai will host an international women's tennis tournament from September 26 to October 2," Meyyanathan told reporters.

The Tamil Nadu government will be the lead sponsor for the $250,000 event, a WTA 250 Tour event. It has also allocated Rs five crore as the first instalment for the tournament.

Tennis legend Vijay Amritraj said he met the Chief Minister earlier in the day and said Stalin had been very supportive.

"Yeah, I met the Chief Minister this morning. He has been very supportive. The pace at which we have been able to get everything sorted is incredible," he told PTI.

"We now need to get the final formalities, paperwork and protocols sorted with the WTA and the tournament owners," he added.

Further, Amritraj said, "after my first meeting with the CM where he was very keen to host an international sporting event, we were able to find a slot, especially with events in China getting cancelled." TNTA CEO Hiten Joshi said the WTA 250 tournament is "a good thing to happen. It will encourage women's tennis in the State." Chennai hosted an ATP event from 1997 to 2017 before the tournament was moved to Chennai.