WTA 250 Chennai Open: A chance for Vaishnavi, Maaya and Sahaja to show their mettle

For Indian tennis players, appearances in the main draws of Tour-level events come at a premium. Therefore, cashing in when a rare window of opportunity opens up is important.

When the main draw of the third edition of the WTA 250 Chennai Open begins at the SDAT Stadium on Monday, Vaishnavi Adkar, Maaya Rajeshwaran and Sahaja Yamalapalli will look to make the most of the wild cards awarded to them. The 21-year-old Vaishnavi, the country’s No. 1 player and ranked 334 in the WTA Rankings, will be up against Jodie Burrage, the 27-year-old Brit who has entered the main draw via a Protected Ranking of 149.

“Playing as India No. 1 is not really what I’m focusing on right now. It’s a big opportunity. I just want to focus on improving my game, playing against the higher-ranked players and give my best out there,” said Vaishnavi during Saturday’s draw ceremony.

The 17-year-old Maaya faces Polish World No. 106 Katarzyna Kawa while 26-year-old Sahaja takes on Swiss World No. 128 Simona Waltert.

Indonesian World No. 47 Janice Tjen, the reigning champion, meets former Junior US Open champion and American wild card Katherine Hui.

The tournament has been hit by a spate of withdrawals in the last few days. As many as seven players pulled out either due to injury, illness or the change in their schedule.

“The tournament draw is very heavy in the middle. It is wide open and anyone can win it,” said Vijay Amritraj, president of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association.

India’s Jensi Kanabar, Zeel Desai, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, and Diya Ramesh bowed out in Qualifying.

Sheetal Iyer (WTA Supervisor), Hiten Joshi (CEO, Tamil Nadu Tennis Association), Panna Udvardy (Hungarian player), Amritraj, Vaishnavi, B. Venkatasubramanyam (secretary, TNTA) were present for the ceremony.