Chennai Open is moving out of its two-decade old home and would now have to shed the most distinctive part of its name. The only sliver of redemption is that the lone ATP World Tour event to be staged in South Asia will stay in India, albeit in a new city, Pune and under a new nomenclature, Maharashtra Open from January 2018.
Formally announcing the development and the events preceding it, Tamil Nadu Tennis association CEO Hiten Joshi said, "We had informed IMG-R (a joint venture between IMG which owns the ATP sanction for the tournament and Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group) that Aircel, which has been the title sponsor of the event will be merging with Anil Ambani's Reliance group and won't be able assist the tournament from next year onwards. We requested IMGR to look for a title sponsor for the 2018 edition and promised to raise the remaining funds so that the event could be staged in the city at least until the end of the present contract in 2019. IMGR has instead cancelled the contract for 2018 & 2019 and we're now exploring legal options. We're glad to have hosted the event for 21 years and would like to extend our best wishes to Pune."
Maharashtra Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) has been hosting a $50,000 ATP Challenger event since the last three years and with this ATP 250 event likely to be staged in the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, both of tennis' biggest events in the country will now belong to a single city.
Starting out as the McDowell Open in New Delhi in 1996, the tournament moved to Chennai the following year and took up a new name - Gold Flake Open - after its title sponsors ITC. With ATP disallowing tobacco companies from sponsoring tournaments thereafter, ITC's support for the event hit a dead end in 2001. Though TATA stepped in to fill in the principal sponsor role, it was short-lived too. The state government has been assisting the tournament since 2005 and keen that the event stay on in the city, late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa doubled its funding from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore in 2012.
Questions over the tournament's continuance in the southern Indian metropolis have been raised time and again, typically every three years, coinciding with the expiry of the contract tenure between IMG and TNTA. Putting speculations to rest, the agreement was renewed in January last year for a fresh term of three years which was to run until 2019. But with political instability setting in following Jayalalithaa's death last year, Chennai Open too hurtled towards an uncertain future.
"It's an absolute shame that the tournament is moving out of Chennai. Thankfully it is not moving out of the country or would have been an utter disaster," Anand Amritraj, who has been associated with the event as a commentator for the past 17 years, says "Over the past few years, crowds have been thin through the week, picking up only in the final weekend. I don't see that changing irrespective of which city we play in the country for the simple reason that we need good results from Indian players to drive an interest among spectators."
The last Indian singles player to make the final of the tournament was Somdev Devvarman in 2009. Chennai, Brisbane and Doha - venues for ATP 250 series events in week 1 of the year - have served as preparatory tournaments ahead of the year's first Slam in Australia. The tournament, which has brought in the likes of Rafael Nadal, Carlos Moya, Pat Rafter and Boris Becker among others in the past, has struggled to generate financial returns in recent years. Revenue from ticket sales too has been paltry.
Following eight successive appearances and his fourth title in the city in January 2016, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka dropped a broad hint that he probably won't be back for the tournament, unless he's offered bigger money. The offer could never be made. This year, the Swiss skipped Chennai and took the flight to Brisbane instead.
"Sadly," adds Amritraj, "everything finally boils down to money. Sport too is no different."