Chennai Open ATP Challenger Championship to take place from February 4 to 11
The Chennai Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s International Tennis Championship is scheduled to take place from February 4 to 11. The SDT Tennis Stadium in Chennai will host the tournament
Vijay Amritraj, the president of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association, in a statement, talked about how Rohan Bopanna started taking giant strides in his career from the Chennai Open nearly two decades ago.
Amritraj also heaped praise on Bopanna for becoming the oldest World No.1. Recently, Bopanna also became the oldest Grand Slam winner at the age of 43 after he won the Australian Open men’s doubles title at Melbourne Park alongside Matthew Ebden.
“On behalf of TNTA, I am delighted to congratulate Rohan Bopanna on becoming the World’s no.1 doubles player and winning the Australian Open title at the same time. Having chased his dreams for such a long time, this is an amazing achievement for Rohan, and even more creditable that it has come at the age of 43,” Amritraj said.
“Rohan’s journey to the top began when he reached his first ATP tour doubles final along with Prakash Amritraj at the Chennai Open in 2006.”
“This once again is a proof that the conduct of international tournaments such as the ATP challenger enable Indian players to excel on the world stage. The support of Government of Tamil Nadu has been incredible for conduct of International Tournaments,” Amritraj added.
Sumit Nagal among big names in Chennai Open
Sumit Nagal, who recently defeated 31st seed Alexander Bublik, will compete in the tournament, having risen from 502 in the rankings since December 2022 to 137 at the Australian Open.
Lucas Nardi of Italy is the top seed after he jumped 45 places from 162 to 117 in the rankings. The 20-year-old has won three challenger events and came to India last year where he advanced to the final in Pune.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, Mukund Sasikumar and Nikoloz Basilashivili are the three wildcards in the main draw. Manish Sureshkumar, Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam, RS Rethin Pranav and Siddarth Vishwakarma are the wildcards in the singles qualifiers.