Chennai, Aug 23 (Representative) The Chennai Open WTA 250 International Women’s Tennis Tournament will be held for the first ever time at the SDAT Stadium here from September 12 to 18. The Qualifying rounds will be held on September 10 and 11, Tamil Nadu Sports and Youth Affairs Siva.V.Meyyanathan and Tamil Nadu Tennis Association President and former Indian Davis Cupper Vijay Amritraj, TNTA Secretary Prem Kumar Karra told reporters here today. The main draw will consist of 32 players, including 21 direct entries, one special exempt, four wild cards and six qualifiers. The main draw list has seven players in the Top 100. Alison Riske Amritraj, the 32-year old from USA, currently ranked 29 in the world who reached a career high singles ranking of 18 in 2019.
She is married to Stephen, son of Anand Amritraj, is the top seeded player in the tournament. She is followed by 26-year-old Elise Mertens of Belgium, a semifinalist at the Australian Open in 2018 and doubles winner with Sabalenka at Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2021 and Caroline Garcia France who has been the singles quarterfinalist and doubles Champion at the French Open in 2017 and 2022. Elise Mertens will be a force to reckon with in both singles and doubles. Caroline Garcia has been as high as no. 4 in singles in 2018 and ranked 2 in doubles in 2016. She is a singles quarterfinalist at the French Open in 2017 and two-time major champion in Doubles, having won the French Open women’s Doubles title in 2016 and 2022. Varvara Andreyevna Gracheva is a 22-year old Russian tennis player.
Gracheva has a career high WTA singles ranking of 69, achieved on June 6, 2022 and a determined player looking to improve on her performance. Magda Linette 30-year-old from Poland is a seasoned player and has scored wins over the then No.1 in the world Ashleigh Barty at the 2021 French Open and Elina Svitolina in 2021 Wimbledon having a career high ranking of 33 in 2020. Rebecca Peterson is a Swedish professional tennis player, 27 years old, she has been ranked as high as singles No. 43 and doubles No. 95 in the world by the WTA. Her top five wins were over Sabalenka at the Adelaide international in 2022 Tatjana Mariateh 35-year old German, a mother of two daughters Charlotte and Ceceilia put up a spectacular performance reaching the Wimbledon Singles semifinals in 2022 as an unseeded player immediately after the birth of her second child in April just two months prior to playing Wimbledon.
A definite inspiration to all sportswomen who are mothers. Linda Fruhvirtova the 17-year-old sensation made her debut on the Women’s tour in 2020 and this year she has moved into top 200 this year. She is the top player in the making. Vijay said the ATP tournament in Chennai had a special significance because a number of top Indians players Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Dev Varman and Ramkumar Ramanathan recorded their first notable performances and catapulted them to the higher rankings and compete with best in the world in Chennai, thus benefitting the players and the game in the state and in the country.