WTT 2026: Tanishka Kalbhairav, Parth Magar, Shankhadip Das qualify for main draw

Thirteen-year-old Tanishka Kalbhairav made the most of the wild card in qualifying to top Group 5 with an all-win record to make it to the women’s singles main draw while Parth Magar, Jash Modi and Shankhadip Das upset higher ranked opponents to make it to the men’s singles main draw in the WTT Feeder Series 2026 on Thursday (Jan 8). In the women’s qualifying round, Tanishka had won two matches in her group on Wednesday and was up against Evana Thapa of Nepal in the final match on Thursday. The Belgavi-born paddler was on a roll beating Evana 11-9, 11-6, 12-10 to top the group.

Also making it to the main draw were, Selena Selvakumar, Anusha Kutumbale, Sampada Bhiwandkar, Ananya Muralidharan and Pritha Vartikar.

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In the men’s qualifying knock-out match, Parth Magar defeated Mehan Senthil 12-10, 15-13, 13-15, 11-8, Jash thrashed Sriram Sivam 11-5, 11-6, 11-6 while Shankhdip got the better of Kumar Harshit 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8.

In the women’s doubles qualifying, Kavya Bhaskar and Pranati Paramesh got the better of Senhora Dsouza and Naisha Rewaskar 11-13, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 to qualify. All the other three pairs qualified directly as they had a bye in the qualifying round.

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In the mixed doubles qualifying, top seeds Raegan Albuquerque and Suhana Saini had to work hard to beat Sriram Sivan and Ananya Muralidharan 5-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10 while second seed Abhinandh Pradhivadhi and Nithya Mani ended the run of Dhairya Parmar and Anusha Kutumbale 11-0, 11-0, 11-0.