CHENNAI: France’s Caroline Garcia, who won the Cincinnati Masters title on Sunday, will be the top seed at the upcoming WTA Chennai Open scheduled to be held from September 12-18.
Former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard and India’s Ankita Raina have been given wildcards for the tournament. During a curtain-raiser event here on Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) announced that along with Bouchard and Ankita, Sharmada Balu and Riya Bhatia got wildcards in doubles category.
Garcia, 28, bagged her third title of the season in Cincinnati and returned to the top-20 of the women’s world rankings and currently occupies the 17th spot. Her career-best ranking was fourth in 2018.
“The no. 1 seed at the moment is Caroline Garcia. Hopefully, she stays fit and comes for our event,” said Vijay Amritraj, president, TNTA (Tamil Nadu Tennis Association) during the event. The second seed will be Alison Riske-Amritraj. Other prominent names in the line-up include Belgium’s Elise Mertens, who made the semifinals of the Australian Open in 2018 and went onto become doubles winner teaming up with Aryna Sabalenka at the same Major three years later.
Asked if Sania Mirza will be part of the event in the doubles category, Amritraj said, “I had a chat with her at the Wimbledon this year and requested her to play doubles here. At that time, Sania said she was playing the US Open and there was a possibility of her playing the WTA doubles finals and would return to India only in October. Now that she is injured and isn’t playing the US Open --- we will have to wait and see if she plays for us.”
In the event of Sania not making it to Chennai Open as a player, Amritraj wants to felicitate her during the tournament. “Even if she doesn’t play in the tournament, TNTA would like to invite her and felicitate Sania in what will be her last year on tour,” Amritraj said.
