ATP Delhi Open: Indian teen Manas Dhamne to face eighth seed Rio Noguchi in first round

New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) Indian teenager Manas Dhamne will face eighth seed Rio Noguchi of Japan in the first round of the ATP Delhi Open 2026 singles event, while the doubles draw will be headlined by top seeds Siddhant Banthia (India) and Alexander Donski (Bulgaria), and second seeds Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (India) and Pruchya Isaro (Thailand).

The ATP Challenger 75 event, returning for its sixth edition at the DLTA Complex, will be held from February 16 to 22, with 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams competing for the title.

Dhamne, one of the brightest young prospects in Indian men’s tennis, broke into the top 500 of the ATP rankings for the first time in January and won his third ITF singles title earlier this month. Noguchi is ranked No. 246 in the world and is a two-time singles champion on the ATP Challenger Tour.

India No. 1 Sumit Nagal, who was part of India’s Davis Cup triumph over the Netherlands in Bengaluru last weekend, will open against Spain’s David Jorda Sanchis.

Elsewhere, Karan Singh will take on seventh seed Daniel Michalski of Poland, while Digvijay Singh will face Petr Bar Biryukov. The singles draw is led by top seed Dane Sweeny of Australia (ranked No. 138) and second seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan (ranked No. 174).

Meanwhile, nine Indians, including Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan, will compete in the 24-player singles qualifying draw.

The qualifying draw is led by Denis Yevseyev (ranked No. 362) and also features former Australian Open semi-finalist Hyeon Chung of Korea. All first-round singles qualifying matches will be played on Sunday, with main draw matches scheduled to begin on Monday.

In the doubles draw, Banthia/Donski will open their campaign against the Philippines’ Francis Casey Alcantara and Zimbabwe’s Courtney Lock. Poonacha/Isaro, who won the Chennai Open ATP Challenger doubles title earlier on Saturday and made their Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open last month, will face fellow Indians S.D.

Prajwal Dev/Nitin Kumar Sinha in a repeat of their Chennai Open semi-final clash. Poonacha finished runner-up in the doubles event at the 2025 Delhi Open alongside Zimbabwe’s Jonny Lock.

The all-Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Ramkumar Ramanathan are seeded fourth and will face Great Britain’s Jay Clarke and Belgium’s Michael Geerts in the opening round.

Two all-Indian teams - Divij Sharan/Karan Singh and Saketh Myneni/Digvijay Singh - have received wild cards into the doubles main draw.

Sharan/Singh will play the Bulgarian-Kazakh duo of Dimitar Kuzmanov and Denis Yevseyev, while Myneni/Digvijay Singh will take on the Indo-Polish pair of Adil Kalyanpur and Daniel Michalski. Noguchi, who won the doubles title in Delhi last year 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), said,

“Events like the ATP Delhi Open give Indian players a genuine platform to test themselves against strong international competition and earn valuable ranking points at home. We’re excited to see young talents like Manas Dhamne, Karan Singh, and others compete on this stage, and we’re proud to host this Challenger event in Delhi once again.”

The tournament has produced all-Indian doubles champions twice in the past, with Saketh Myneni/Sanam Singh and Yuki Bhambri/Mahesh Bhupathi lifting the trophy in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

In singles, Somdev Devvarman remains the only Indian champion, having won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015.

As part of the ATP Challenger 75 series, the tournament will award 75 ranking points to the singles and doubles champions, 50 points to the doubles runners-up, and 44 points to the singles runner-up. The singles champion will receive $17,000 in prize money, with the runner-up earning $9,600. The doubles champions will split $4,980, while the runners-up will split $2,880.

--IANS

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