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NEW DELHI: After a hiatus of a year, the tennis tournament the Tata Open Maharashtra has announced that it will come back and will be broadcast on Star Sports. This will be the tournament's fourth edition and will be held at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune. The tournament's main draw will start from today and will continue till 6 February.
It is one of Asia's longest-running tennis tournaments and is being organised by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association. It will have international players like world number 15 Aslan Karatsev and defending champion Jiri Vesely vying for the singles title alongside seven other top-100 players of the world like Lorenzo Musetti and Portugal's best tennis player of all time Joao Sousa among others.
The tournament is owned by IMG and operated by RISE Worldwide in India.
“We are glad that such a prestigious tournament is returning to India and will be hosted once again despite the challenges of the pandemic. Continuing the tradition and popularity of this tournament over the years, we are delighted that this year too, it will bring a treat for the fans as around 70 top players from 23 countries will be in action. And with the live broadcast, tennis enthusiasts will not be missing thrilling action and can watch it from the comforts of their home," said Prashant Sutar, the tournament's director.
The Star Sports Select channel and Disney+ Hotstar will show the tournament on its network. For about 12 years, Star Sports has been televising the tournament including the last three editions which have been sponsored by Tata group.
The Indian challenge will be led by Yuki Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Arjun Kadhe in singles and three pairs will be participating in doubles led by Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan. They have been handed a direct entry into the main draw despite a strong line-up of international players.
Historically, India’s only ATP event has seen participation by world’s top players like Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, Carlos Moya, Pat Rafter and their ilk besides India’s top guns, Somdev Devvarman, and doubles icons Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.
The fourth edition of this tournament is all set to make its return after a one-year break, due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The Open has been held every year for the last 26 years. Initially it was held in Delhi, followed by Chennai when it was named the Chennai Open. The championship finally moved to Pune, Maharashtra in 2018 and rebranded as the Maharashtra Open.
