[2] It was first organised by the Tamil Union Cricket & Athletic Club and first played on clay courts in Colombo, Ceylon then later Sri Lanka.
The international tournament was played annually until 1973 when it was discontinued as part of the worldwide ILTF Independent Tour.
[4] In 1920 a tennis section was established and three clay courts were built.
[1] The championships became part of the ILTF World Circuit until 1969 (for men) and 1972 (for women).
The event was downgraded from the annual worldwide tour, but it was still being held in 2022 as the Janashakthi Life Tamil Union Open (for sponsorship reasons) a Sri Lanka Tennis Association ranking tournament.