Vadodara, Jan 2 (IANS) 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.

Divyanshi, who had won both the U-15 and U-17 girls singles titles last year, opened her campaign by blanking compatriot Neeza Kamat 11-4, 11-1, 11-2 in the Group 1 opener, while Syndrela defeated Tania Karmakar 11-6, 11-6, 11-2 in Group 3.

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.

–IANS

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