Vadodara (Gujarat) [India], January 2 (ANI): Vatsal Duklan and Hansini Mathan created the largest upsets of the day as they packed off boys’ U-17 and women U-17 prime seeds respectively, to succeed in the quarter-finals of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Youth Contenders 2026 on the SAMA Indoor Stadium right here on Friday.
Duklan upset prime seed Ritvik Gupta 4-11, 11-5, 11-7, 18-16 in an exciting boys’ singles pre-quarterfinal earlier than Hansini overturned a 1-2 deficit to pack off defending champion Divyanshi Bhowmick 5-11, 11-9, Sep 11, 11-7, 11-4 in women singles spherical of 16, as per a WTT press launch.
The second seed in boys’ U-17 singles, Aditya Das, was additionally knocked out within the second spherical by Sohum Mukherjee, who then acquired the higher of Rushikesh Jagtap 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 10-12, 11-7 within the Round of 16.
Local hope Ved Panchal reached the pre-quarterfinal stage, the place he bowed out after dropping 11-3, 11-4, 11-3 towards Sahil Rawat.
The second version of the WTT Youth Contender in India kicked off right now with the U-13 and U-17 girls and boys singles competitions and might be adopted by U-11, U-15 and U-19 competitions.
There have been no such hiccups for the opposite favourites within the women’ U-17 part as second seed Miku Matsushima of Japan and Syndrela Das of India eased via to the quarterfinals. In the Round of 16, Miku defeated Sukrati Sharma of India 11-7, 11-2, 11-6, whereas Syndrela beat Indira Sen 11-6, 11-6, Sep 11, 11-6 to advance.
Also reaching the final eight stage have been upcoming paddlers Naisha Rewaskar and Tanishka Kalbhairav. Naisha packed off Arohi Roy 11-5, 11-3, 11-7 whereas Tanishka fought again from a sport all the way down to beat Ankolika Chakraborty 5-11, 11-8, 11-9, 12-10. They will now face one another for a spot within the semi-finals. (ANI)