Chennai likely to host two more Challengers in 2018

The Tamil Nadu Tennis Association is looking to host two more Challenger tournaments in 2018, and has also bid host a Davis Cup tie.

The SDAT Tennis stadium in Chennai hosted the ATP Chennai Open for 20 years and hosted its last Davis Cup tie in September 2010.

If all goes well, Chennai will host two more Challengers by the year-end, said C. B. N. Reddy, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) on Saturday.

"If TNTA's wish is granted, it will be the first time that Chennai will host as many as three Challenger events in a single year. The plan is to host both these tournaments sometime in October or November so as to coincide with similar Challenger events in Pune and Bengaluru."

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Reddy said TNTA has also bid to host a Davis Cup tie. While Reddy did not go into the specifics, he said that TNTA, in the last All India Tennis Association Executive Council meeting, put forth a bid to host it. Chennai had last hosted Brazil in the World Group play-off tie in September 2010.

Five Indians through to final round of qualifying

Five Indians – Haadin Salim Bava, S. Abhinav Sanjeev, Arjun Kadhe, Vishnu Vardhan and Sidharth Rawa – have qualified for the final round of singles qualifiers of the Chennai Open Challenger tennis championships here.  

The results (second qualifying round, Indians unless mentioned): Wishaya Trongcharoen Chaikul (Tha) bt Gokul Suresh 6-2, 6-4; Haadin Salim Bava bt Dalwinder Singh 6-0, 7-6 (5); Nikola Cacic (Srb) bt Suraj R Prabodh 6-3, 7-5; S. Abhinav Sanjeev bt Aryan Goveas 7-6 (4), 4-1 (retd.); Luca Margoroli (Sui) bt Ulises Blanch (USA) 0-1 (retd.); Arjun Kadhe bt Adil Kalyanpur 6-3, 6-1; Vishnu Vardhan bt R. Ramakrishnan 6-3, 6-0; Sidharth Rawat bt Shahbaaz Khan 6-1, 6-2.