The host’s hopes in Bengaluru Open Challenger 125 rest on talents like Myneni, Dhamne, Nagal, Prajwal, Aryan and Dhakshineshwar.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Starting 2019, in the 16 ATP Challenger tournaments that have been held in India, there has just been one home winner – Sumit Nagal in 2024 in Chennai.
On Monday, when the Dafa News Bengaluru Open Challenger 125 gets underway at the S.M. Krishna Stadium inside Cubbon Park, Nagal and a bunch of Indians will be hoping to slightly alter this miserable record.
It will help that this year’s competition, despite being in the second-highest tier of the Challenger Tour, has a low cut-off. The last direct acceptance into the singles main draw is Eric Vanshelboim at No. 472.
The Canberra International Challenger, being played concurrently, has former World No. 4 and 2014 US Open finalist Kei Nishikori as the last man in at No. 158.
The geographical proximity of Canberra to the season’s first Major Australian Open perhaps explains this gulf with Bengaluru, but the overall field in the Garden City is weaker compared to the previous two editions as well.
In 2025, Blake Ellis at No. 300 was the final direct entry while in 2024 it was Giovanni Fonio at 279.
But this shouldn’t be held against the event. Home Challengers are hosted to help local players, and shifting the competition to an early January slot from its traditional post-Australian Open window has seemingly resulted in more Indians getting into the main draw.
When last year’s four-Challenger swing began in February in Chennai, no Indian, barring Nagal at No. 105, was eligible without a wild card. This time in Bengaluru, apart from Nagal, Aryan Shah and Karan Singh – both ranked in the 400s – are in the final 32 on merit.
Dhakshineswar Suresh, Manas Dhamne and local lad S.D. Prajwal Dev are the three wildcards, and on Monday, Sidharth Rawat can potentially join his countrymen as a qualifier.
However, before they try and reach for the title, there is a dismal number from the previous season that requires rewriting – Indians finished with a 1-13 win-loss record across the four Challengers.
There is thus a high bar and a low bar to clear. It will be in Indian tennis’ best interests if both can be managed.
Qualifying first round (select results): Sidharth Rawat bt Nitinkumar Sinha 6-3, 7-5; Aziz Ouakaa (Tun) bt A. Vishal Balsekar 6-4, 7-6(3); Eero Vasa (Fin) bt Adil Kalyanpur 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; Arthur Reymond (Fra) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-5, 7-6(3); Dominik Palan (Cze) bt Dev Javia 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(5); Niels Visker (Ned) bt Manish Sureshkumar 6-3, 6-3.
Published – January 04, 2026 09:23 pm IST