India’s top tennis singles players and several other promising names have been excluded from the Asian Games tennis contingent after the Sports Ministry reduced the squad proposed by the All India Tennis Association (AITA). The Ministry’s final sanction order issued on August 22, cleared a 492-member Indian contingent across 35 disciplines for the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, scheduled from September 19 to October 4. AITA had recommended a 12-member tennis team that included six women. The approved list was reduced to seven players.
Those left out are Sahaja Yamalapalli, India’s No. 1 women’s singles player currently ranked 344 on the WTA list, Vaishnavi Adkar, who recently reached the final of a W100 event in Bengaluru after beating world No. 79 Lanlana Tararudee; Manas Dhamne, ranked around 372 and among the world’s top under-19 players, doubles specialist Prarthana Thombare; and two-time national champion Vaidehee Chaudhari. Only Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale were retained among the women. On the men’s side, Sumit Nagal and Dhakshineswar Suresh feature in singles, alongside doubles specialists Yuki Bhambri, N. Sriram Balaji and Anirudh Chandrasekar.
AITA interim secretary general Sunder Iyer said the federation had pushed hard for the full squad. “We tried our best in convincing the authorities to send all the selected players but they are citing the criteria of sending only top-8 players in Asia. It’s disappointing but the criteria is the same for all sports, what to do,” he told PTI.
🚨 5 Indian tennis players AXED from the Asian Games squad — and the reasoning is going to frustrate a lot of people. The Indian Sports Ministry is willing to send only those players to Asian Games who are Top 8 in Asia Here's who got left out, and what they'd actually earned… pic.twitter.com/fhqdrvIjUL
— Indian Tennis Daily (ITD) (@IndTennisDaily) August 23, 2026
Indian Tennis Players Left Out of Asian Games Squad
|
Player |
Achievement / Ranking |
Notable performance |
|
Sahaja Yamalapalli |
WTA No. 344; long-time India No. 1 |
Has been going deep in tournaments across the US and Europe this season |
|
Vaishnavi Adkar |
Reached W100 Bengaluru final |
Defeated World No. 79 Lanlana Tararudee en route to the final |
|
Manas Dhamne |
World No. 372; No. 6 among Under-19 players globally |
One of India's promising young players |
|
Prarthana Thombare |
India's long-time doubles No. 1 |
Experienced doubles specialist |
|
Vaidehee Chaudhari |
Two-time National Champion |
Established domestic record and experience |
Sahaja, speaking from the Netherlands where she is competing on the WTA circuit, expressed shock and disappointment. “I am really shocked and disappointed to hear this. I was very much looking forward to competing in the Asian Games,” she said. She also said that multi-sport events often produce upsets and that lower-ranked players can still deliver medals. “If we say that I will compete only when I am a seeded player, then what’s the point of going there? Why play tennis at all?”
AITA had earlier highlighted Sahaja’s ranking and recent deep runs, Vaishnavi’s World University Games bronze, and the overall strength the broader squad would bring across singles, doubles and mixed doubles. The association argued that Asian Games tennis offers five medal events and that India had strong mixed-doubles entry prospects. Those representations did not change the Ministry’s decision.
