Sports

The WTT Youth Contender Vadodara 2026 concluded at the SAMA Indoor Sports Complex on Monday, with Indian table tennis players delivering a series of strong performances across age categories. India’s Syndrela Das emerged as the standout performer of the tournament. The Indian table tennis player clinched the U19 mixed doubles title with Sarthak Arya and bagged the U17 girls singles for herself. In the U19 mixed doubles final, Syndrela Das and Sarthak Arya dominated the top-seeded Indian pair of Abhinandh Pradhivadhi and Ananya Muralidharan 3-0 (11-3, 11-9, 11-3). Earlier, Syndrela Das had also claimed the U17 girls’ singles title after defeating compatriot Hansini Mathan 3-1 (11-3, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8) in the final. Rupam Sardar defeated compatriot Soham Mukherjee 3-1 (11-8, 6-11, 11-5, 11-3) to take the boys’ crown in the age group. Syndrela, however, failed to defend her girls’ U19 crown as she went down to compatriot Jennifer Varghese in the quarter-finals this year. Japan’s Miku Matsushima defeated Divyanshi Bhowmick, the U15 and U17 champion from last year, 3-2 (11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-3) in the final to win the title this year and denied Indian players a clean sweep of all the titles at the meet. Priyanuj Bhattacharyya outplayed Sarthak Arya 3-0 (12-10, 11-8, 14-12) to become the new U19 boys champion. In the U15 mixed doubles category, Vivaan Dave and Naisha Rewaskar lifted the title after a 3-0 (11-8,11-8,11-3) win over Reyansh Jalan and Tanishka Kalbhairav in the final. Aadya Baheti and Rajdeep Biswas registered comfortable wins to be crowned the U11 girls and boys singles champions, respectively. Aadya defeated Sakshya Santosh 3-0 (15-13, 11-8, 12-10) for her crown while Rajdeep got the better of Sharvil Karambelkar by a 3-1 (11-8, 11-6, 11-13, 11-4) scoreline in the boys’ singles final. Dev Pranav Bhatt defeated Ashvajith Muthukumaran 3-1 (11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4) in the U13 boys singles final.  Divija Paul, the U11 champion from last year, took the top honours in the U13 girls category, with a hard-fought 3-2 (11-9, 7-11, 8-11,11-7,11-5) victory over Harshitha Nurani in the decider. Aditya Das defeated Sanjay Jagadish 3-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-8) in the final to win the U15 boys singles event, as Sreejani Chakraborty saw off Tanishka Kalbhairav, the 2025 U13 winner, 3-2 (8-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-5) to bag the girls’ title in the category. This was the second edition of the WTT Youth Contender in Vadodara. A total of 226 table tennis players from multiple countries competed across five age groups and 12 events.

india is all set to start their 2026 season today, as they face New Zealand in the first match of the three-match ODI series in Vadodara, Gujarat. The match will start at 1:30 PM. This will be the last ODI series for India before they head into full T20 mode with the T20 World Cup 2026 and the IPL 2026 on the horizon. Veterans like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli return to action and could be seen in India colours for the last time till July this year. India have suffered a setback as wicketkeeper‑batter Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of the three‑match series due to a right side strain injury. It will also be Shubman Gill’s first series since he was dropped from the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup, with the 25-year-old returning as captain of the ODI side. The second ODI will be played at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot on January 14, while the third and final match is set to take place at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on January 18.