The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Chennai Open logo unveiled

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Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009
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Chennai Open logo unveiled

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The $450,000 Aircel Chennai Open ATP Tour event took another sure step forward in the run-up to the event to be staged at the Nungambakkam Stadium in Chennai from January 4 to 10, 2010 with the unveiling of the logo, here on Tuesday.

“The vibrant Aircel logo with three swishes represents simplicity, creativity and trustworthiness”, said Gurdeep Singh, the Chief Operating Officer of Aircel. The Aircel COO remarked that his company was delighted to be associated with tennis and the longest running international sporting event in the country, after having been associated with cricket and golf in a big way.

“Sport is bigger than players,” said Gurdeep Singh, while answering a question whether support for tennis would lead to support for some of the talented players as well.

The secretary general of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Anil Khanna, lauded Chennai for running the tournament successfully for 14 years, after it was first held in Delhi in 1996, even as he extended a warm welcome to Aircel for joining the tennis family.

“We look forward to their support for tennis,” said Anil Khanna, emphasising the need to have at least 40 international tournaments each for men and women, to promote Indian tennis.

The AITA secretary general highlighted the quality performances of Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, the evergreen stars Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi apart from Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, in making it a memorable season so far.

“Sanam Singh is doing very well in the U.S, and it is going to be a fight for the wild cards for the Chennai Open”, he remarked, adding that Somdev would hopefully get a direct entry by breaking into the top-100.

The president of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA), M.A. Alagappan, said that the 83-year-old State Association was proud to be hosting the prestigious event, and thanked the title sponsor for assuring support for the next two editions, to complement the consortium of sponsors with the Tamil Nadu government playing a pivotal role.

“We have had Rafael Nadal playing for three years, we had Patrick Rafter winning the title, and we had Boris Becker competing in the event.

This time the French Open finalist Robin Soderling will be there. Somdev Devvarman made the final this year, and this tournament is definitely a launching pad for the Indian players”, said the Chairman of the organising committee, Karti Chidambaram, even as everyone recalled how Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had won their maiden Tour event doubles title in Chennai way back in 1997, a first step towards Grand Slam glory in their illustrious career.

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