Chennai, October 10th 2026: 24-year-old Indonesian Janice Tjen of Indonesia returns to Chennai as the top seed of the third and to defend her title at the third edition of – the Chennai Open International Women’s Tennis Championships 2026 – a WTA 250 event -and India’s highest international ranking tournament to be played between 2nd and 8th November 2026 at the well-known SDAT Tennis Stadium, Nungambakkam Chennai.
The tournament which is strongly supported by the Government of Tamil Nadu and other sponsors is the highest-ranking women’s international tournament to be held in India. Chennai has had the privilege of hosting an ATP250 event for two decades and is now host of third edition of a similar event for women. 23 names of the Main Draw being released, it is to be noted that there are 22 countries being represented – the highest ever international representation in our event so far, and 11 players are from the top 100. It is also the first time that an Asian will be the top seed.
List of countries represented are Indonesia, Austria, Thailand, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Switerland, Spain, Uzbekistan, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Unites States of America, Serbia, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Australia, Georgia, Canada, China, Ukraine, Republic of South Korea, Finland. Janice ranked 49, will face a challenge from a whole lot of top players who are in the current participation list – Lilli Tagger the 18-year-old from Austria, a French Open Junior Champion and currently ranked 61 in the world who will be the second seed, 22 year old Lanlana Tararudee from Thailand ranked 63 will be third seed followed by Panna Udvardy of Hungary and Magda Linette of Poland and the runner up of the 2022 event and Yulia Putinseva, current Asian Games Bronze Medallist in Singles and doubles, a former top 20 in the world and quarterfinalist in Grand Slams Deep in the list are Polina Kudermetova, a known Uzbek name and Joanna Garland of Chinese Taipei who played a heroic semifinal last year and 19-year-old Teodora Kostovic of Serbia The Stadium maintained by Sports Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) is being spruced up to meet the needs of this prestigious event. The court surface has been re-laid as well.
Vijay Amritraj, President of TNTA and Indian Tennis legend, who heads the Organising Team commented, “TNTA has always been at the forefront of Tennis in India and is now proud to present the third edition of the WTA 250 event – the Chennai Open to the sports living public of Chennai and Tamil Nadu. This would not have been possible without the strong backing and encouragement of the Government of Tamil Nadu led by our young CM Thiru Joseph Vijay ably supported by the Honourable Sports Minister Aadhav Arjuna, himself a notable National Basketball player. I got to know of the excellent function held yesterday to honour the Asian games medal winners and other athletes was filled with genuine warmth and appreciation for the efforts of the athletes, is a testament of their commitment to develop sports to highest of levels. SDAT on its part is doing a great job of taking care of the stadium and have given us excellent cooperation. The player list is solid with a fair mix of experience and upcoming international talent and the level of competition is going to be of the highest international order. The fact that players like Janice, Magda, Tajana are returning to Chennai as have a number of top players in the past, shows the humane and welcoming nature that Chennai and Chennai public hold for all its visitors The event is going to see the implementation of the electronic line calling on all its 3 match courts for the first time in this country. I would urge the sports lovers and young tennis players to use this opportunity to come to the Stadium and witness world-class tennis and enjoy the absorbing festive atmosphere of the event. I look forward to seeing you in large numbers.’
The total prize money is USD 2,83,347 (app Rs 2,69,17,965) with Singles Winner to receive $37,390 (app Rs 35,52,050), the singles runner up will receive $22125 (app Rs 21,01,875) and The winner in the doubles will receive $13600 (app Rs 12,92,000) and Runner up $7650 (app Rs 7,26,750). The winners will receive 250 WTA points and runner up 163 WTA points. The tickets are priced at 7500/ 4500/ 3000 for the season. There will be an early bird offers for season ticket purchases, the announcement of the start of sales will be made shortly. The organising team includes Premkumar Karra, Vice President, TNTA, B Venkatesh Honorary Secretary, TNTA, Vivek Reddy Honorary Treasurer, TNTA and Rajeev Vijaykumar Head of Development of TNTA. Sheetal Iyer, the experienced WTA official will be the Tournament Supervisor – first time an Indian lady is to play this role for a WTA 250 event in India, while Abhishek Mukherjee, who started his officiating career in Chennai in 1997 will be the Referee and Hiten Joshi the Tournament Director.