The first day of the WTT Youth Contender Vadodara, a part of the WTT Youth Series, witnessed no surprises in the qualifying stages and the main draw, as all the top seeds made it to the quarterfinal stage at the end of Day 1. Abhinandh Pradhivadhi, Priyanuj Bhattacharyya, Divyanshi Bhowmick, and Jennifer Varghese moved into the quarterfinal stage of the U/17 boys’ and girls’ categories. A total of 37 boys and 42 girls began their campaign on Day 1, with only 8 remaining in the U/17 boys’ and girls’ categories.

It was smooth sailing for top seed Abhinandh Pradhivadhi, as he topped his group by easily defeating fellow compatriot Siddhant Kataria (3-1) and Agasthya Kashyap from Sri Lanka (3-0), eventually beating Atharva Nawarange in the Round of 16 (3-0). Second-highest-ranked Priyanuj Bhattacharyya also made his way into the main draw, winning both his matches comfortably before eventually beating Kim Jihu 3-0—though the scoreline does not reflect how close the match was. Other seeds, including Atharva Gupta and Ritvik Gupta, also secured their spots in the quarterfinals.

Top-ranked Divyanshi Bhowmick had quite the scare in the first match of the qualifiers, clawing her way back from 0-2 down against Vanshika Mudgal to win 3-2. The rest of her matches went as per script, as she made it to the quarterfinals by the end of the day. Another favorite, Syndrela Das, had to withdraw from the competition, allowing Ananya Muralidharan to top the group instead. Jennifer Varghese made quick work of her matches to top her qualifying group, continuing her winning streak into the quarterfinals, but not without effort. Vanshika Mudgal fought back from 2-0 down to win the next two games, making Jennifer work extra hard for her spot in the quarterfinals.

The top seeds in the U/13 boys' and girls' categories had a similar outing to their senior counterparts, with no notable upsets in the group stages. However, in the Round of 16, Tanishka Kalbhairav upset higher-ranked Janvi Garg 3-0 (13/11, 11/9, 11/9) to reach the last eight, while all other U/13 girls' seeds comfortably advanced to the next round. In the U/13 boys' category, on the other hand, higher-ranked players were eliminated early as the event moves into Day 2.

Tomorrow will kick off the U/19 and U/15 mixed doubles events, with headliners Ankur Bhattacharjee, Pritha Vartikar, Taneesha Kotecha, Preyesh Suresh, Divyanshi Bhowmick, and Sahil Rawat in action.

 

Day 1 Results:

Round of 16:

U/17 Boys:

Abhinandh Pradhivadhi bt Atharva Nawarange 3-0 (11/7,11/7,11/5)
Nikhil Mannath bt Vatsal Duklan 3-0 (13/11,11/8,11/8)
Sahil Rawat bt Shouren Soman 3-0 (11/6,11/7,11/5)
Atherva Gupta bt Mehan Senthil 3-1 (10/12,13/11,11/9,11/7)
Ritvik Gupta bt Achinth Ananda 3-0 (11/1,13/11,11/8)
Punit Biswas bt Sudhanshu Maini 3-0 (11/8,11/7,11/3)
Rupam Sardar bt Aditya Das 3-0 (11/4,11/5,11/9)
Priyanuj Bhattacharyya bt Kim Jihu 3-0 (12/10,15/13,11/5)

U/17 Girls:

Divyanshi Bhowmick bt Mouboni Chatterjee 3-1 (11/8,9/11,11/2,11/9)
Sathya Aspathi bt Suhani Mahajan 3-2 (11/3,6/11,7/11,11/8,11/9)
Kavya Bhatt bt Sreejani Chakraborty 3-0 (12/10,11/5,11/7)
Ankolika Chakraborty bt Parmi Nagdeve 3-0 (11/3,11/7,12/10)
Jennifer Varghese bt Vanshika Mudgal 3-2 (12/10,11/6,8/11,10/12,11/3)
Naisha Rewaskar bt Ranjini Saha 3-2 (11/2,11/7,10/12,12/14,11/8)
Diya Bramhachary bt Himanshy Chowdhary 3-0 (11/4,11/3,11/8)

Day 2 Fixtures, 27th February 2025:

            • U/15 Mixed Doubles: Round of 32 to Semi-Finals

            • U/19 Mixed Doubles: Round of 16 to Semi-Finals

            • U/17 Boys and Girls: Quarter-Finals to Finals

            • U/13 Boys and Girls: Quarter-Finals to Finals