Tennis is not new
to Chennai - John Newcombe in his s autobiography, ‘Life on and off the court’
wrote about playing in 1973 in Davis Cup in Chennai. The early rounds of our Davis Cup campaign
under captain Neale Fraser took us to Japan and India. With Rod Laver and Ken
Rosewall temporarily unavailable, Mal Anderson, Geoff Masters and I were the
singles players, while Geoff and I handled the doubles. Our Cup tie at Chepauk
in Madras, southern India, was held in unbelievable temperature regularly over
the 40-degree-Celsius mark. After three games you’d be drenched with sweat. Amritrajs were to play them then.
Carlos Moya on elephant –
pic credit : the Hindu
For them - the arrival of the Gold Flake Open (later
known as Aircel Chennai Open) was a dream come true. For two decades now, Young and old thronged to SDAT Tennis Stadium
(also known simply as 'Nungambakkam Stadium'), to watch world-class action. Thomas
Enqvist, the winner of the inaugural 1996 edition (held at New Delhi), was the
first to make an emotional connect with the public. Yet another Swede, Mikael
Tillstrom, then a top-40 player, conquered the arena in 1997. He reserved his best for Chennai summer. Carlos Moya's love affair with Chennai Open
continued for many years. 2003 winner
and three-time finalist Paradorn Srichaphan was adopted as Chennai’s son. The
talented strokemaker was from Thailand, but fans erased geographical boundaries
and embraced him as their own. The
Indian interest, meanwhile, was ruled by the doubles combination of Leander
Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. The duo announced their arrival by winning the
tournament in 1997.
To all the fans,
the news came sad - IMG-Reliance, the right holders of the tournament along
with Government of Maharashtra and Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association
(MSLTA), announced this on Wednesday, revealing Pune to be the new city to host
the 2018 edition. It will henceforth be called the 'Maharashtra Open'. No more ‘Chennai Open’ – the death of a 21
long years of high quality Tennis tournament.
With the demise of Chennai chapter, the ATP 250 event, now rechristened
'Maharashtra Open', will be held in Pune in 2018.
In a statement, the
Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) said that they received an email from IMGR
cancelling the contract to conduct the event in 2018 and 2019. TNTA further
said it would consult its legal counsel and take appropriate action. Aircel
Chennai Open, Gold Flake Open and Tata Open had all been its earlier names !~
now it is the shift in venue itself, that leaves Chennai fans saddened.
More the reason to
follow and cheer for our own Premier league – TNPL.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
22nd July 2017.
