Chennai, 11th February 2026: Singles top seed Jay Clarke suffered a first-round exit at the Chennai Open ATP Challenger Men’s International Tennis Championship 2026, currently underway at the SDAT Tennis Stadium, Nungambakkam, on Wednesday. However, the top two seeded pairs in doubles — Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha / Pruchya Isaro and Saketh Myneni / Siddhant Banthia — advanced to the quarter-finals.
Clarke, ranked No. 183 in the ATP rankings, broke Greece’s Ioannis Xilas early in the first set to take a 3-0 lead. But the 24-year-old Xilas struck back strongly, breaking serve and controlling the match to register a 6-4, 6-4 win.
In another first-round singles match, Indian qualifier Aryan Lakshmanan (ATP No. 1824) competed strongly in the opening set before going down to Poland’s Maks Kasnikowski (ATP No. 419) 7-5, 6-2.
In second-round singles action, India’s Mukund Sasikumar won the first set before losing to Kazakhstan’s Denis Yevseyev 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Yevseyev was joined in the quarter-finals by second seed Federico Agustin Gomez of Argentina, who defeated Italy’s Lorenzo Carboni 6-3, 6-4.
In doubles, top seeds Poonacha/Isaro, who made their Grand Slam debut at last month’s Australian Open after winning the Asia-Pacific Wildcard Playoff, defeated Indian pair Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta/Digvijaypratap Singh 6-4, 6-2 to reach the last eight.
“We executed our game with high energy and controlled the points. Overall, we played solid,” Poonacha said after the win. “Playing in Chennai always feels like home — perfect weather, great infrastructure and very humble people. Hopefully we will go deeper in the tournament,” he added.
Second seeds Myneni/Banthia battled back from a set down to beat Yevseyev/Eric Vanshelboim 2-6, 6-1, 10-2 in the match tie-break to also reach the quarter-finals. Myneni is aiming to reach the final of the Chennai Open Challenger for the third consecutive year after winning the title in 2024 and finishing runner-up in 2025 (both times partnering Ramkumar Ramanathan).
Two other Indian pairs also advanced to the last eight. Wildcards Lohithaksha Bathrinath/Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam defeated fellow Indians Manas Dhamne/Atharva Sharma 6-3, 2-6, 10-8, while Ishaque Eqbal/Manish Sureshkumar overcame the Indo-British duo of Raghav Jaisinghani/Carl Holder 3-6, 6-1, 10-3.
Second-round singles action will continue on Thursday with India No. 1 Sumit Nagal taking on big-serving Petr Bar Biryukov, while qualifier Sidharth Rawat faces Kasnikowski.
Singles Main Draw First Round:
Ioannis Xilas (GRE) def. [1] Jay Clarke (GBR) 6-4, 6-4
Maks Kasnikowski (POL) def. [Q] Aryan Lakshmanan (IND) 7-5, 6-2
Singles Main Draw Second Round:
[2] Federico Agustin Gomez (ARG) def. Lorenzo Carboni (ITA) 6-3, 6-4
Denis Yevseyev (KAZ) def. Mukund Sasikumar 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
Doubles Main Draw First Round:
[1] Pruchya Isaro (THA)/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) def. Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND)/ Digvijaypratap Singh (IND) 6-4, 6-2
[2] Siddhant Banthia (IND) Saketh Myneni (IND) def. Eric Vanshelboim (UKR)/ Denis Yevseyev (KAZ) 2-6, 6-1, 10-2
[WC] Lohithaksha Bathrinath/ (IND) Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (IND) def. Manas Dhamne (IND)/ Atharva Sharma (IND) 6-3, 2-6, 10-8
Felix Gill (GBR)/ Alastair Gray (GBR) def. Francis Casey Alcantara (PHI)/ Adil Kalyanpur (IND) 6-2, 7-6 (5)
Ishaque Eqbal (IND)/ Manish Sureshkumar (IND) def. [Alt] Carl Holder (GBR)/ Raghav Jaisinghani (IND) 3-6, 6-1, 10-3
About the Tournament:
Coromandel International Limited is now the Title sponsor, G Square is an Associate Sponsor while Lancor Holdings is a co-sponsor. Apollo Hospital is the Medical Partner, The Park Hotels is the Hospitality partner while ACT Fibernet is the Fibernet Partner.
The main draw consists of 32 players – 21 direct acceptances, 2 Special exempts, 3 wild cards, 6 qualifiers. Qualifying consists of 24 players with 4 wild cards. The prize money for the event is USD 63,000/- (Rs.60 lakhs). Prize Money for Singles Winner is US Dollars 9,500 Indian rupees 8,64,500 .and will get 50 ranking points, while the Runner-Up will receive US Dollars 5,500 (Rs 5,00,500 and will get 25 ranking points. Double pair winners will receive US Dollars 2,980 (Rs 2,71,180 and Runners-Up USD 1,740 (Rs 1,58,340). The Chennai Open is the first of a series of ATP Challenger events to be held in India with events in Delhi and Pune to follow.
Entry for spectators to witness the matches is free. The playing sessions of the Main Draw will start on Monday the 9th of February from 10 AM onwards and continue under floodlights if required. The Doubles finals will be played on Saturday 14th February 2026 while the singles finals are slated for Sunday 15th February 2026. The tournament is looking forward to the participation of the sports and tennis fans from Chennai.