WTT Youth Contender Chennai 2026: Bhaskar Sugra stuns top seed Nikkhil Mannath; Divyanshi Bhowmick, Ritvik Gupta march into quarters

Chennai, October 23: Twenty-third seed Bhaskar Sugra produced the biggest upset of the opening day, knocking out top seed Nikkhil Mannath in the U17 boys' singles pre-quarterfinals of the WTT Youth Contender Chennai 2026, presented by Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University here on Friday.

The four-day tournament, being held from October 23 to 26, features 12 categories from U11 to U19.

Sugra, who had beaten 25th seed Sounav Barman 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 in the Round of 32, trailed 1-2 before winning 15-13, 8-11, 4-11, 13-11, 11-5. He will now face 11th seed Sahil Rawat, who defeated Reyansh Jalan 11-7, 11-7, 11-8.

The 13-year-old Himon Mondal, seeded 34th, also came back from two games down to stun 17th seed Trishal Surapureddy 9-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-9. He will meet ninth seed Rupam Sardar, who beat Nilay Pattekar 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6.

Second seed Ritvik Gupta was in total control against 14th seed Rushikesh Jagtap, winning 11-7, 11-4, 11-4, and will take on 18th seed Soham Mukherjee, who got the better of seventh seed Sanjey Arwindh 11-13, 11-6, 11-5, 14-12.

Third seed Aditya Das defeated 12th seed Rishaan Chattopadhayay 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 to set up a quarterfinal clash against sixth seed Akshay Kirikara, who beat 10th seed Akash Rajavelu 11-8, 12-10, 16-14. Earlier in the Round of 32, Kirikara had packed off fourth seed Yousif Abdalla of Qatar 11-5, 11-2, 11-7, while 35th seed Reyansh Jalan knocked out fifth seed Vatsal Duklan 11-4, 11-1, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9.

In the U17 girls' singles, top seed Divyanshi Bhowmick eased past Shrijoyee Mukherjee 11-8, 11-6, 11-2 to set up a quarterfinal against sixth seed Ananya Muralidharan, who edged 10th seed Tanishka Kalbhairav 11-7, 11-3, 8-11, 9-11, 12-10. Tanishka had earlier stunned second seed Satya Aspathi of USA 11-6, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9 in the Round of 32.

Third seed Prisha Goel blanked Prachi Ghosh 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 and will face fifth seed Naisha Rewaskar, who came from a game down to beat 11th seed Swara Karmarkar 6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-8.

Fourth seed Hansini Mathan beat Saturya Banerjee 11-8, 11-6, 11-8 and will face the winner of the pre-quarterfinal between seventh seed Ahona Ray and Avisha Karmakar, while eighth seed Sreejani Chakraborty will take on 23rd seed Pragnya Pragnya.

In the U13 boys' singles, 11th seed Satwik Manjunath upset third seed Samuel Win of Australia 11-5, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6 to set up a pre-quarterfinal against fourth seed Ashvajith Muthukumaran. Eighth seed Akhil Ramakrishnan of USA thrashed fifth seed Mubarak Al-Qutaiti of Qatar 11-2, 11-2, 11-5 and will take on ninth seed Yug Prabhu, while top seed Koh Wei Yeow of Malaysia opens his knockout campaign against 12th seed Suchet Dharennavar.

The U13 and U17 singles titles will be decided on Saturday evening.