Manas Dhamne continued his fine run at the Shymkent Challenger on Friday, beating Italy’s Alexander Binda 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals to reach the first ATP Challenger semifinal of his career.
The 18-year-old, ranked 444, was in control for most of the match. He broke Binda in the first set and served it out without facing much pressure, then stepped on the accelerator in the second, winning it comfortably to wrap up the contest in straight sets. Binda, ranked 469, had little answer to Dhamne’s consistency from the baseline and found it challenging to generate opportunities of his own.
This result makes Dhamne the first Indian man to reach a Challenger semifinal in 2026.
He will next face Antoine Ghibaudo, ranked 325, who will arrive as the higher-ranked opponent — but Dhamne has shown across this week that he is capable of going toe-to-toe against strong opposition. Earlier in the tournament, he accounted for Gijs Brouwer, a former world No. 114, in a 6-1, 6-1 show of dominance in the Round of 16.
At 18, Dhamne is still in the early stages of his time on the Challenger circuit. A first semifinal at this level, and potentially more, would mark a meaningful step in his ranking and development heading into the rest of the season.