Chennai Open 2026: Manas Dhamne, Sumit Nagal lead Indian challenge in ATP Challenger 50 field

The total prize money of the tournament is USD 63,000.

The Coromandel Chennai Open ATP Challenger Men’s International Tennis Championship 2026 – an ATP Challenger 50 event will be hosted by the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association between 9th and 15th February 2026 at the SDAT Tennis Stadium, Nungambakkam, Chennai.

In this edition of the tournament players from 14 countries – Czech Republic, Great Britain, South Africa, Croatia, Japan, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Canada, Uzbekistan, Spain, Hungary, France, Italy, and Turkey beside India will be participating and the competition is going to be stiff.

The top seed is Jay Clarke of Great Britain ranked 178 now among the top 8 player in Great Britain. He is followed at No 2 by Federico Agustin Gomez of Argentina ranked 192.

The other seeds are Oliver Crawford of Great Britain ranked 204, Rio Noguchi of Japan ranked 236, Federico Ferreira Silva of Portugal ranked 265 and Ilia Simakin of Russia ranked 275, the Indian challenge will be led by  Sumit Nagal who is ranked 281.

Sasikumar Mukund, Manish Suresh Kumar and Manas Dhamne have been given wildcards for the Main Draw. In the last ATP Challenger event held in 2025 in Chennai, Kyrian Jacquet of France won the event and Elias Ymer of Sweden was the finalist.

Paulo Cardoso of Portugal will be the ATP Supervisor he will be aided by Anton Dsouza the Referee and P Saravanan will be the Chief of Officials.

TNTA celebrated 2025 as its centenary year and is proud of the fact that every year since 1996, barring the COVID years a major international event has been conducted at the SDAT Tennis Stadium, thanks to the support of Government of Tamil Nadu, Sports Development of Tamil Nadu and other sponsors.

Over the last three decades, the eventual winners as well as a host of Indian players who participated in the Chennai event have gone on to perform exceptionally well during the year, achieving their respective career milestones for the first time ever.

The instances range from Leander Paes reaching the final in the Challenger event in 1996, Leander and Mahesh Bhupathi winning the first ever ATP 250 doubles title in 1997, Rohan Bopanna reaching his first ever ATP 250 doubles in 2006 followed by winning the title with Jeevan Nedunchezhian in 2017. Somdev Devvarman reached the singles final in 2009.

Mr. Vijay Amritraj, President of Tamil Nadu Tennis Association remarked “On behalf of TNTA, I thank the Coromandel International and all the sponsors for their consistent support to tennis over the years.

The conduct of international tournaments such as the ATP Challenger enables Indian players to excel on the world stage and has encouraged TNTA to embark on an ambitious Player Development program called THE NEXT LEVEL, an effort to provide financial and technical support to top Tamil Nadu juniors to enable them to play to their potential and achieve tennis excellence.”

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Mr. Arun Alagappan, Executive Chairman, Coromandel International, said “At Coromandel, we believe sport inspires excellence, discipline, and global competitiveness values that reflect our ethos.

We are proud to be the Title Sponsor of the Coromandel Chennai Open ATP Challenger 50, a tournament known for nurturing future champions and strengthening Chennai’s place on the international tennis map.

Our partnership with the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association which celebrates 100 years underscores our commitment to supporting sporting talent and grassroots development.

We congratulate all the players and wish them the very best, especially the Indian contingent, as they compete in this truly global tournament featuring players from 14 countries”

I look forward to an exciting fare in the Coromandel Chennai Open and the Indian Players using this opportunity to climb up the international rankings ladder.”

Coromandel International Limited is now the Title sponsor, G Square is an Associate Sponsor while Lancor Holdings is a co-sponsor. Apollo Hospital is the Medical Partner, The Park Hotels is the Hospitality partner while ACT Fibernet is the Fibernet Partner.

The main draw consists of 32 players – 21 direct acceptances, 2 Special exempts, 3 wild cards, 6 qualifiers. Qualifying consists of 24 players with 4 wild cards.

The prize money for the event is USD 63,000/- (Rs.60 lakhs). Prize Money for Singles Winner is US Dollars 9500 Indian rupees 8,64,500 .and will get 50 points, while the Runner Up will receive US Dollars 5500 (Rs 5,00,500 and will get 25 points.

Double pair winners will receive US Dollars 2980 (Rs 2,71,180 and Runner Up USD 1740 (Rs 1,58,340). The Chennai Event is the first of a series of ATP Challenger events to be held in India. The next few tournaments are to be held at Delhi and Pune,

Entry for spectators to witness the matches is free. The qualifying event is to be played on Sunday 8th February 2026 from 10 AM onwards and the playing sessions of the Main Draw will start on Monday the 9th of February from 10 AM onwards and continue under floodlights if required.

The Doubles finals will be played on Saturday 14th February 2026 while the singles finals are slated for Sunday 15th February 2026. The tournament is looking forward to the participation of the sports and tennis fans from Chennai.

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