WTT Youth Contenders: Vatsal Duklan and Hansini Mathan caused the biggest upsets of the day as they packed off boys' U-17 and girls' U-17 top seeds respectively to reach the quarterfinals of the WTT Youth Contenders 2026 at the SAMA Indoor Stadium in Vadodara on Friday.
Duklan upset top seed Ritvik Gupta 4-11, 11-5, 11-7, 18-16 in a thrilling boy’s singles pre-quarterfinal before Hansini overturned a 1-2 deficit to pack off defending champion Divyanshi Bhowmick 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 11-4 in girls' singles Round of 16.
The second seed in boys' U-17 singles, Aditya Das, was also knocked out in the second round by Sohum Mukherjee, who then got the better of Rushikesh Jagtap 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 10-12, 11-7 in the Round of 16.
Local hope Ved Panchal reached the pre-quarterfinal stage, where he bowed out after losing 11-3, 11-4, 11-3 against Sahil Rawat.
The second edition of the WTT Youth Contender in India kicked off on Friday with the U-13 and U-17 boys and girls singles competitions and will be followed by U-11, U-15, and U-19 competitions.
There were no such hiccups for the other favourites in the girls' U-17 section as second seed Miku Matsushima of Japan and Syndrela Das of India eased through to the quarterfinals. In the Round of 16, Miku defeated Sukrati Sharma of India 11-7, 11-2, 11-6, while Syndrela beat Indira Sen 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6 to advance.
Also reaching the last eight stage were upcoming paddlers Naisha Rewaskar and Tanishka Kalbhairav. Naisha packed off Arohi Roy 11-5, 11-3, 11-7, while Tanishka fought back from a game down to beat Ankolika Chakraborty 5-11, 11-8, 11-9, 12-10. They will now face each other for a spot in the semi-finals.
Earlier, defending champion Divyanshi Bhowmik, Syndrela Das, Japan’s Miku Matsushima, and rising star Tanishka Kalbhairav kicked off their U-17 girls' singles campaign with comfortable wins in the group stage on Friday.
Also reaching the last eight stage were upcoming paddlers Naisha Rewaskar and Tanishka Kalbhairav. Naisha packed off Arohi Roy 11-5, 11-3, 11-7, while Tanishka fought back from a game down to beat Ankolika Chakraborty 5-11, 11-8, 11-9, 12-10. They will now face each other for a spot in the semi-finals.
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Japan’s Matsushima took big strides towards the knockout stage with 11-3, 11-4, 11-2 wins over Swara Karmakar and then defeated Anvi Gupte 11-6, 11-3, 11-8 in Group 2.