New Delhi, Feb 14 (NationPress) Rising Indian star Manas Dhamne is set to challenge eighth seed Rio Noguchi from Japan in the initial round of the ATP Delhi Open 2026 singles competition. The doubles event will feature top seeds Siddhant Banthia (India) and Alexander Donski (Bulgaria), while second seeds include Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (India) and Pruchya Isaro (Thailand).

The ATP Challenger 75 series event, marking its sixth installment at the DLTA Complex, is scheduled from February 16 to 22. It will see 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams vie for victory.

Manas Dhamne, noted as one of the brightest talents in Indian men's tennis, entered the top 500 of the ATP rankings for the first time in January and recently secured his third ITF singles title. His opponent, Noguchi, is currently ranked No. 246 globally and is a two-time champion on the ATP Challenger Tour. India's No. 1 player, Sumit Nagal, who contributed to India’s Davis Cup success against the Netherlands last weekend, will face David Jorda Sanchis from Spain in his opening match.

In other matches, Karan Singh will compete against seventh seed Daniel Michalski from Poland, while Digvijay Singh will take on 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).

Additionally, nine Indian players, including Davis Cup representative Ramkumar Ramanathan, are set to compete in the 24-player singles qualifying draw. This draw is led by Denis Yevseyev (ranked No. 362) and features former Australian Open semi-finalist Hyeon Chung from Korea. All first-round qualifying matches will take place on Sunday, leading into the main draw matches set to commence on Monday.

In the doubles competition, the duo of Banthia/Donski will begin against Francis Casey Alcantara from the Philippines and Courtney Lock from Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, Poonacha/Isaro, who recently clinched the Chennai Open ATP Challenger doubles title and made their Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open last month, will face fellow Indians S.D. Prajwal Dev and Nitin Kumar Sinha in a rematch from their Chennai Open semi-final.

The all-Indian team of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Ramkumar Ramanathan is seeded fourth and will take on Jay Clarke from Great Britain and Michael Geerts from Belgium in their opening match.

Two Indian pairs, Divij Sharan/Karan Singh and Saketh Myneni/Digvijay Singh, have received wildcards into the main draw. Sharan/Singh will face the Bulgarian-Kazakh team of Dimitar Kuzmanov and Denis Yevseyev, while Myneni/Digvijay Singh will compete against the Indo-Polish duo of Adil Kalyanpur and Daniel Michalski. Noguchi, who won the doubles title in Delhi last year with Masamichi Imamura, returns to defend his title, this time partnering with Luca Castelnuovo from Switzerland.

After the draw, Rohit Rajpal, President of the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA), stated, “Events like the ATP Delhi Open provide Indian athletes a valuable opportunity to measure their skills against formidable international opponents while earning essential ranking points at home. We eagerly anticipate the performances of emerging talents such as Manas Dhamne and Karan Singh, and we are proud to host this Challenger event in Delhi once more.”

This tournament has previously seen all-Indian doubles champions twice, with Saketh Myneni/Sanam Singh and Yuki Bhambri/Mahesh Bhupathi lifting the trophy in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Somdev Devvarman remains the sole Indian champion in singles, having won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015.

As an ATP Challenger 75 series event, the tournament will offer 75 ranking points to the singles and doubles champions, 50 points to the runners-up in doubles, and 44 points to the singles runner-up. The singles champion will receive $17,000 in prize money, while the runner-up will earn $9,600. The doubles champions will share $4,980, whereas the runners-up will divide $2,880.