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New Delhi, June 9
In a setback for Indian tennis, the country has lost its only ATP 250 tournament — an event that was first held way back in 1996 and till recently was organised as Tata Open Maharshtra.
The Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) had saved it from going out of the country in 2018 when the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) gave up on hosting the tournament after conducting it for 13 years. The tournament was an arrangement between MSLTA, the Maharashtra government, IMG and RISE Worldwide (an initiative of the Reliance Group).
“The contract with IMG and RISE stands successfully completed, MSLTA has undertaken all its commitments towards successful conduct of the event for 5 years,” MSLTA secretary Sunder Iyer and tournament director Prashant Sutar said in a statement.
“We still have a commitment from both the Government of Maharashtra and our sponsors TATA for promoting Tennis in Maharashtra and India when we have the right opportunities to organise any other major event which we are pursuing in right earnest currently in interest of our players and Indian tennis fraternity,” the statement added.
It has been learnt that the tournament will be relocated to Hong Kong, though a contract has not been signed as yet.
Indian doubles players though benefitted a lot by playing in this tournament. Another tournament moving out of country is the WTA event hosted in Chennai.
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