“It gives our girls a good chance to actually test themselves, as to whether, ‘Am I good enough? How can I get better? What tricks are they doing better?’. These are the kind of things that only top players can test you at,” Amritraj said at the Chennai Open event, on Friday.

Last year, two of India’s top talents—Sahaja Yamalapali and Shrivalli Bhamdipaty—made it out of the first round, beating players of higher rank. The tournament is getting some offers from the top-50 ranked women’s players, he said.

“We are getting some offers from top-50 players, so it is a question of economics now. It is a question of getting more sponsors. It is a question of who would like to come – we don’t want them to turn up just for one game and leave,” the Padma Bhushan Awardee said.

With the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) making Electronic Line Calling (ELC) mandatory for the Tour, the TNTA have now enabled the technology on three courts. However, the biggest question that emerges from WTA 250’s return to Chennai is whether it will draw more kids into the sport in the State.

“The interest in tennis in the state is like chess. Chess has grown leaps and bounds, and was just being told that there are close to 100 grandmasters in the country, which is quite unbelievable. When we look at tennis, there are so many kids who are interested in taking up the sport, which will only continue to rise,” the TNTA president said.

“The question has always been about excellence, are these talents ready to sacrifice, what are you willing to give up. You need to put a lot on the line, and still may not succeed but we at TNTA need to give them opportunities,” he added.

The TNTA president also thanked the government for its continued support, noting that a ‘pro-sport’ government makes it easy for the organisers to conduct such competition seamlessly.