india loses hosting rights for only atp 250 tennis tournament

Credit: Twitter

India has reportedly lost the right to host its only ATP 250 tennis tournament, which was scheduled to take place in Pune next year. With that, the TATA Open Maharashtra, which had  completed five years this past January, will not be played from 2024 onwards.

It was also revealed in the same report that the WTA 250 tennis tournament in Chennai, which was played for the first time in 2022, will not be coming back to India this year. The Chennai Open marked the return of a professional women’s tennis tournament in the country last year, after a long hiatus since 2008.

As per the tweet from a PTI journalist, named Amanpreet Singh, the TATA Open Maharashtra will be moved to Hong Kong for next year by IMG, the owner of the tournament. His tweet about the latest developments in Indian tennis read, “Sad News! India loses its only ATP 250 event. There won't be TATA Open Maharashtra after completing 5 years. IMG, the owner of the tournament, has now given it to Hong Kong. Chennai WTA event also goes out of India #indiantennis”

In 2023, the TATA Open Maharashtra men’s singles title was won by Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands, who defeated Benjamin Bonzi of France by 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Over its coveted history, this ATP 250 tennis tournament, hosted by New Delhi, Chennai, and Pune, has had men’s singles champions like Stanislas Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, Milos Raonic, Ivan Ljubicic, Carlos Moya, and Pat Rafter, among others.

Meanwhile, the men’s doubles title in 2023 was secured by Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium, who brushed aside N. Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan of India by 6-4, 6-4. The legendary Indian tennis pairing of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi has won this men’s double title five times in their careers, including a hat-trick of wins from 1997 to 1999.