Rising Stars Shine at WTT Youth Contender 2026 in Vadodara

Syndrela, who had won the U-19 girls' singles title last year, ended the dream run of Hansini Mathan 11-3, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8 in the U-17 girls singles final, while Rupam Sardar defeated Soham Mukherjee 11-8, 6-11, 11-5, 11-3 in the boys' U-17 final.

This is the second year that the WTT Youth Contender is being held in Vadodara and will have competitions from U-11 to U-19 categories, featuring a total of 226 players.

In the U-13 category, Divija Paul fought back from a 1-2 deficit to beat Harshitha Nurani 11-7, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5 in the girls' single final, while Dev Pranav Bhatt took home the boys' single title with an 11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4 win over Ashvajith Muthukumaran.

Syndrela, who had upset second seed Miku Matsushima of Japan in the semi-finals, began strong and dominated the opening game. But Hansini, who had upset top seed Divyanshi Bhowmick in the pre-quarterfinals, then managed to find her rhythm and took the second game.

However, it was Syndrela's experience that made the difference, as she pocketed the next two games despite a close fight to clinch the title.

She will also have a chance to grab the U-19 mixed doubles crown on Sunday as she and her partner Sarthak Arya set up a summit clash against top seeds Abhinandh Pradhivadhi and Ananya Muralidharan, who lived up to their top billing to set up a U-19 mixed doubles summit clash against Sarthak Arya and Syndrela Das.

In the semi-finals, Abhinandh and Ananya defeated Ritvik Gupta and Ahona Ray 9-11, 14-12, 11-7, 11-8, while Sarthak and Syndrela ended the inspired run of Sahil Rawat and Hardee Patel 11-6, 12-10, 5-11, 11-5.

Earlier, Vivaan Dave and Naisha Rewaskar kept their nerves in a topsy-turvy decider that went into extra points to upset top seeds Aditya Das and Ankolika Chakraborty in the U-15 mixed doubles semi-final.

Vivaan and Naisha defeated the top seeds 13-11, 5-11, 11-7, 5-11, and 23-21 and set up a summit clash against compatriots Reyansh Jalan and Tanishka Kalbhairav, who beat Sanjay Jagdish and Myraa Sangelkar 11-3, 15-13, and 11-7 in the other semifinal.

Vivaan and Naisha had displayed their fighting spirit in the opening game itself when they came back from 5-8 down and saved a game point before winning the opening game.

Both pairs then shared the spoils in the next three games to set up a thrilling decider.

It looked like Aditya and Ankolika would race away in the decider as they opened up a 4-0 lead and then had three match points at 10-7.

Vivaan and Naisha not only saved those three match points but also kept their nerves to draw level every time their opponents reached a match point before winning four straight points to wrap up the match.

- ANI