After the very first Wimbledon Championships in 1877, tennis caught the fancy of many people across the world. The British colonies, especially, were fascinated with the sport and the first tennis courts appeared in Chennai barely six years after the first Championships. As early as 1883, four tennis courts were laid in Madras Cricket Club (MCC).

In January of 1887, a significant incident occurred in the history of tennis in South India – MCC took the initiative and organized the first Lawn Tennis tournament in South India. Two interesting features occurred at this tournament. It had an event for the ladies (only three years earlier in 1884, the first Ladies’ Singles event had taken place at the Wimbledon) and the prizes awarded to players were all in cash.

With the growing popularity and appeal of Tennis, associations were being messaged all over the world for the orderly development of the game. In the year 1920, at Lahore, the All India Tennis Association came into being. Six years later, in 1926, the Madras Provincial Lawn Tennis Association was inaugurated, with Hon. Justice E.E. Mack as its first President.

The Madras Cricket Club, Madras United Club, and the South Indian Athletic Association were the first amongst the clubs to get affiliated to the Association. The other prominent clubs that played a key role in the development of tennis were Madras Gymkhana Club, Mylapore Club, Cosmopolitan Club, and Clubs in Ooty, Trichy, Madurai and Coimbatore. These Clubs, apart from providing tennis facilities to their members, regularly conducted tournaments that attracted large enthusiastic crowds.

The Government of Tamil Nadu constructed a world-class tennis stadium for the conduct of the South Asian Federation (SAF) games in 1995. This stadium is now called the SDAT Tennis Stadium and is located at Lake Area in Nungambakkam, Chennai.

Impressed by the international facilities at the stadium the organizers, International Marketing Group (IMG) moved South Asia’s only ATP event to Chennai in 1997. This made it possible for the Chennai tennis loving crowd to witness in action international greats like Boris Becker, Patrick Rafter, Richard Krajicek, the “Woodies”, Carlos Moya, Rafael Nadal, Ivan Lubjicic, Stanislaus Wawrinka, Marin Cilic and Daniil Medvedev.