Vadodara (Gujarat) [India], January 3 (ANI): Syndrela Das and Rupam Sardar registered comfortable victories to clinch the U-17 girls' and U-17 boys' singles titles in the WTT Youth Contender 2026 at the SAMA Indoor Sports Complex here on Friday, while Divija Paul and Dev Pranav Bhat were crowned the U-13 girls and boys' champions, respectively, as per a release.

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.

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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.

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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)

(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)