WTT Youth Contender 2026: Top Seeds bow out of Competition

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Vatsal Duklan and Hansini Mathan created the biggest upsets of the day as they packed off boy's U-17 and girls U-17 top seeds respectively to reach the quarter-finals of the WTT Youth Contenders 2026 at the SAMA Indoor Stadium here 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 boy's 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 today 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.