New Delhi [India] February 15 (ANI): Indian teenager Manas Dhamne will face eighth seed Rio Noguchi of Japan within the first spherical of the ATP Delhi Open 2026 singles occasion, whereas the doubles draw will likely be headlined by high seeds Siddhant Banthia (India) and Alexander Donski (Bulgaria), and second seeds Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (India) and Pruchya Isaro (Thailand). The ATP Challenger 75 occasion, returning for its sixth version on the DLTA Complex, will likely be held from February 16 to 22, with 32 singles gamers and 16 doubles groups competing for the title.
According to a launch, Dhamne, one of many brightest younger prospects in Indian males’s tennis, broke into the highest 500 of the ATP rankings for the primary time in January and gained his third ITF singles title earlier this month. Noguchi is ranked No. 246 on this planet and is a two-time singles champion on the ATP Challenger Tour. India No. 1 Sumit Nagal, who was a part of India’s Davis Cup overcome the Netherlands in Bengaluru final weekend, will open in opposition to Spain’s David Jorda Sanchis.
Elsewhere, Karan Singh will tackle seventh seed Daniel Michalski of Poland, whereas Digvijay Singh will face Petr Bar Biryukov. The singles draw is led by high seed Dane Sweeny of Australia (ranked No. 138) and second seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan (ranked No. 174).
Meanwhile, 9 Indians, together with Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan, will compete within the 24-player singles qualifying draw. The qualifying draw is led by Denis Yevseyev (ranked No. 362) and likewise options former Australian Open semi-finalist Hyeon Chung of Korea. All first-round singles qualifying matches will likely be performed on Sunday, with principal draw matches scheduled to start on Monday (February 16).
In the doubles draw, Banthia/Donski will open their marketing campaign in opposition to the Philippines’ Francis Casey Alcantara and Zimbabwe’s Courtney Lock. Poonacha/Isaro, who gained the Chennai Open ATP Challenger doubles title earlier on Saturday and made their Grand Slam debut on the Australian Open final month, will face fellow Indians S.D. Prajwal Dev/Nitin Kumar Sinha in a repeat of their Chennai Open semi-final conflict. Poonacha completed runner-up within the doubles occasion on the 2025 Delhi Open alongside Zimbabwe’s Jonny Lock.
The all-Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Ramkumar Ramanathan are seeded fourth and can face Great Britain’s Jay Clarke and Belgium’s Michael Geerts within the opening spherical.
Two all-Indian groups – Divij Sharan/Karan Singh and Saketh Myneni/Digvijay Singh – have acquired wild playing cards into the doubles principal draw. Sharan/Singh will play the Bulgarian-Kazakh duo of Dimitar Kuzmanov and Denis Yevseyev, whereas Myneni/Digvijay Singh will tackle the Indo-Polish pair of Adil Kalyanpur and Daniel Michalski. Noguchi, who gained the doubles title in Delhi final 12 months alongside Masamichi Imamura, returns to defend his crown — this time partnering Switzerland’s Luca Castelnuovo.
Commenting after the draw, Rohit Rajpal, President of the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA), mentioned, ‘Events just like the ATP Delhi Open give Indian gamers a real platform to check themselves in opposition to sturdy worldwide competitors and earn precious rating factors at dwelling. We’re excited to see younger skills like Manas Dhamne, Karan Singh and others compete on this stage, and we’re proud to host this Challenger occasion in Delhi as soon as once more.’
The event has produced all-Indian doubles champions twice prior to now, with Saketh Myneni/Sanam Singh and Yuki Bhambri/Mahesh Bhupathi lifting the trophy in 2015 and 2016, respectively. In singles, Somdev Devvarman stays the one Indian champion, having gained back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015.
As a part of the ATP Challenger 75 collection, the event will award 75 rating factors to the singles and doubles champions, 50 factors to the doubles runners-up and 44 factors to the singles runner-up. The singles champion will obtain $17,000 in prize cash, with the runner-up incomes $9,600. The doubles champions will break up $4,980, whereas the runners-up will break up $2,880. (ANI)