A boost for tennis in India
Times of India — December 24, 2002

The Tata Open in Chennai is a unique event in Indian sport. The first ATP event of the year and the only one in India, the Tata Open does more for tennis in India than just bringing top quality tennis to the country After careful consideration the Tata group decided to support the ATP event in Chennai and on December 30, Chennai will once again see stars, old and new, as the rest of the country watches on television what has become an annual tennis festival in South India.

Sports lovers in general and tennis lovers in particular are thankful for this great support from the Tata group, which gives a great boost to Indian tennis. First, we get to see world-class tennis in our backyard. Second, it gives our young players a great opportunity to play against some of the best players in the world. It gives them a chance to see them close-up, practice with them and be around them.

An atmosphere that is impossible to find unless you are actually part of the event. You get to see their training habits, pre-match routines, their post-match wind down and discussions on the practice courts before and after they have won or lost. Their dialogue with their coaches is particularly interesting. If you want to learn more and become a better player, there is no better place than to be amid the group that plays the sport at the highest level.

Thirdly, this major event is seen around the country on television daily It promotes the sport in every corner of India and gives viewer a great opportunity to see a world-class event in our country It gives youngsters another great reason to firmly believe that if players from far corners of the globe can come and play in India under very different conditions and feel quite at home, than they can do it as well.

They also see players, who have grown up in diverse cultural backgrounds but have been drawn together because of a great sport that they love, want to be the best in, and then amazingly, also earn their living from it. It is also the world's greatest education, to be able to travel and see the world first hand, doing something you love and being paid for it at the same time.

This is all quite clear to the viewer as he or she watches the matches, listens to the players during interviews which then encourages the youngsters to dream big. To the people of Chennai, they have the luxury of seeing all of this live and close up. The atmosphere is fantastic; kids clinics and various promotional activities with the ATP players involved take place on a daily basis. Each and every bit of what these world class athletes do, add to the glamour and atmosphere of this mega-sporting event.

The best thing that the Tata group could have done was to give the sports loving public of India the great opportunity to be a part of world-class tennis and give our youngsters the hope and belief, that if these guys can do it coming from diverse backgrounds, then we can do it as well.