India’s only ATP 250 tournament, moved to Pune this year, will officially be called the Tata Open Maharashtra. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced Tata as title sponsor of the first edition of Maharashtra Open in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The season opening ATP World Tour event, previously known as Chennai Open, will be played at the Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium in Pune from January 1 to 6, 2018. The qualifiers will be played on December 30 and 31, 2017.
“I feel privileged to announce Tata as the title sponsor for Maharashtra Open. The Group has played a stellar role in upliftment of sports in the best of their capacities and their support to this ATP event organised in our state is a matter of great pride for us,” Fadnavis said.
Introduced in 1996, the Indian ATP tournament has featured players like Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Carlos Moya, Patrick Rafter, Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic. This year, there will four top-50 players in action in Pune.
Former US Open champion and World No 6 Marin Cilic (Croatia), world No 14 Kevin Anderson (South Africa), world No 20 Roberto Bautista Agut (Spain) and world No 42 Robin Haase (Netherlands) will headline the event. Some of the other big names will be Yen-Hsun Lu (71), Jeremy Chardy (77), Pierre-Hugues Herbert (81) and Gilles Simon (91), and big-serving Ivo Karlovic (81) who will look to begin the season on a winning note.
The winner of the Tata Open Maharashtra will take home US$80,000 at the US$550,000 tournament.