^{(Pic: Pramod Mani)}
Qualifier Abhinav continued his good run and stunned eight seed Ryuki Matsuda of Japan in the first round of the Adityan ITF M25 International Tennis Tournament 2026 held at the SDAT Tennis Stadium Nungambakkam Chennai. Abhinav dominated the talented Matsuda  with strong serves, firing 8 aces and powerful groundstrokes, winning the first set in quick time. In the second set, both the players played some solid tennis and finally Abhinav won the second set in a tie break and secured a spot in the second round, where he will face former national games champion Prajwal Dev. Second seed Ilya Simakin proved too good for young Madhwin Kamath, winning 6-1, 6-1.

On the brighter side for India, Wild card entrant Hitesh Chauhan defeated Grigoriy Lomakin 7-6(7), 6-3, while another Wild card local lad Manish Sureshkumar outplayed sixth seed Eric Vanshelboim in straight sets after the latter retired during the second set: 6-1, 4-1 (ret.)

Top seed Max Houkes defeated Qualifier Aditya Balsekar in straight sets 6-3 6-3.
In doubles action, two matches were played. Japanese pair Taisei and Masamichi beat Francis and Karan Singh in a closely-contested match. In the other all-Indian match, Lohithaksha and Abhinav defeated Manish Suresh Kumar and Aryan Lakshmanan 10-7 in the match tie break.

Results:

Men’s Singles Main Draw 1st Round

S1-Max Houkes (NED) Bt Q- Aditya Balsekar 6-3 6-3
Q- Udit Kamboj Bt Timofei Derepasko 6-4 3-6 6-4
S D Prajwal Dev Bt WC- Kabir Hans 6-3 6-0
Q- Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam Bt S8-Ryuki Matsuda (JPN) 6-4 7-6(8)
S3- Jonas Forejtek (CZE) Bt Taisei Ichikawa (JPN) 6-7(2) 6-0 6-2
Masamichi Imamura (JPN) Bt Q- Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-1 6-1
WC- Hitesh Chauhan Bt Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ) 7-6(7) 6-3
Niels Visker (NED) Bt S7- Vladyslav Orlov (UKR) 3-6 7-5 6-1
Q- Dev Javia Bt Felix Balshaw (FRA) 6-4 6-3
Manas Dhamne Bt Q- Aryan Lakshmanan 6-1 6-1
WC- Manish Suresh Kumar Bt S6- Eric Vanshelboim (UKR) 6-1 4-1 (retd)
Domnic Palan (CZE) Bt WC- Keerthivasan Suresh 6-2 6-2
Mitsuki Wei Leong (MAS)  bt Yurii Dzhavakian (UKR) 1-6, 6-2, 4-0 (Retd)
S2-Ilia SimakinBt WC- Madhwin Kamat 6-1 6-1

Men’s Doubles Main Draw 1st Round

Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam / Lohithaksha Bathrinath Bt Manish Suresh Kumar / Aryan Lakshmanan 6-3 3-6 10-7
Taisei Ichikawa (JPN) / Masamichi Imamura (JPN) Bt Francis Casey Alcantara (PHI) / Karan Singh 7-6(5) 7-5