Siddharth Rawat beats Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 7-5 as the main draw begins Monday with Sumit Nagal facing S.D. Prajwal Dev.
Bengaluru, January 4 – Rawat beat Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the final qualifying round of the Bengaluru Open 2026. Rawat won in straight sets at S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium in Cubbon Park, keeping his main draw hopes alive.
Rawat took the first set 6-3 with solid baseline play. Sinha pushed back in the second set, breaking Rawat’s serve once, but Rawat answered with two breaks of his own to close it out 7-5.
The main draw starts Monday, January 5, with the tournament running through January 10. This marks the 10th edition of the event, officially called the Dafa News Bengaluru Open Challenger 125.
Other Indian Results
Five other Indians fell in earlier qualifying rounds. Dev Javia lost to Dominik Palan in three sets on Saturday, while Adil Kalyanpur fell to Eero Vasa, also in three sets. Vishal Balsekar, Manish Sureshkumar, and former top-120 player Ramkumar Ramanathan all exited in earlier rounds. Rawat remains the only Indian qualifier still alive.
Main Draw Features: All-Indian Battle
Monday’s main draw brings several interesting matches. Sumit Nagal faces S.D. Prajwal Dev in an all-Indian clash. Prajwal Dev got into the main draw through a wildcard. He’s ranked around 350 in the world, while Nagel sits near 95.
Manas Dhamne, another Indian wildcard, takes on fifth seed Matej Dodig from Croatia. Dodig is ranked 232. Dhamne is ranked around 400. The third Indian wildcard went to Dhakshineswar Suresh, ranked approximately 450.
Top seed Pedro Martinez from Spain leads the field at world number 92. Second seed Harold Mayot of France is ranked 163. Third seed Jay Clarke of Great Britain comes in at 175. The other seeds are Lloyd Harris from South Africa at fourth, Dodig at fifth, Timofey Skatov from Kazakhstan at sixth, Max Houkes from the Netherlands at seventh, and Benjamin Hassan from Lebanon at eighth.
Tournament Details
Brandon Holt from the United States won last year’s singles title. The doubles went to India’s Anirudh Chandrasekar and Ray Ho from Chinese Taipei.
The tournament is played on hard courts at S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium in Cubbon Park. As a Challenger 125 event, it offers $132,280 in total prize money. The singles winner gets approximately $18,000.
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What’s at Stake Monday
The all-Indian match between Nagal and Prajwal Dev guarantees one Indian will lose in the first round. If they’d been placed in different sections of the draw, India might have had two players in round two.
Nagel should win easily, given the 250-point ranking gap. But pressure changes things. He’s carrying the weight of being India’s only reliable Challenger performer in recent years.
Dhamne faces a tougher task against Dodig. The Croatian is ranked 168 spots higher. Dhamne would need his best tennis just to stay competitive.
Rawat still has one more qualifying match to play before he knows if he makes the main draw. If he wins, he’ll join the three wildcards as India’s fourth representative in the tournament.
- Tournament: Dafa News Bengaluru Open Challenger 125
- Dates: January 5-10, 2026
- Venue: S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium, Cubbon Park, Bengaluru
- Surface: Hard court
- Top seed: Pedro Martinez (Spain, ranked 92)
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