Vaishnavi Adkar becomes first Indian to reach an ITF W100 Final

Adkar defeated second seed Lanlana Tararudee 6-3, 6-3 to book Final spot at the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open W100 Bengaluru 2026

Bengaluru, 21 February 2026: Vaishnavi Adkar created history at the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open W100 Bengaluru 2026 today, becoming the first Indian woman to reach the Final of a W100 event and the first since Sania Mirza to reach the singles final of an ITF W100 event or higher. The 21-year-old from Pune, ranked World No. 690 and competing as a wildcard, defeated second seed and World No. 126 Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand 6-3, 6-3 in a composed semifinal display.

Mirza had last achieved the milestone when she reached the final of the WTA International (later classified as WTA 250) event in Pattaya in 2009. Adkar’s run in Bengaluru has been nothing short of remarkable, as she has beaten two top 150 players and one top 250 player en route to the Final.

The semifinal began evenly, with both players holding serve confidently in the early games. The turning point came in the seventh game of the opening set when Adkar’s deep baseline returns forced errors from Tararudee, including a costly double fault that handed the Indian the break. Growing in confidence, Adkar applied sustained pressure on serve and attacked the net to earn two set points and convert after errors from the Thai player, to take the set 6-3.

Adkar carried that momentum into the second set with a comfortable hold as Tararudee’s service inconsistencies began to show. Though the Thai briefly broke back after Adkar had secured an early advantage, the Indian responded immediately. In the sixth game, she struck a pair of superb backhand winners to reclaim the break and move 4-2 ahead. Calm under pressure, Adkar saved a deuce game with a forehand winner to stretch the lead to 5-2 before sealing the match in the ninth game with a confident forehand winner.

“I’m still trying to process that I’m going to be playing the Final tomorrow. Getting on to the court, I wasn’t really thinking much about the result or how it’s going to go, I just wanted to take it one point at a time is what I’ve done. The only thing that’s been on my mind was that I wanted to make the best out of the opportunity that I’ve gotten here from KSLTA, so really grateful for that and I’m glad that I was able to make the best of it,” Adkar commented after the match.

In the other semifinal, third seed Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium beat fifth seed Polina Iatcenko 6-4, 7-6 (5) to book her place in the final against Adkar.

Later in the day, the Doubles title was decided with Japanese pair of Misaki Matsuda and Eri Shimizu defeating third seeds India’s Ankita Raina and Indonesia’s Priska Madelyn Nugroho 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 to claim 100 WTA raking points along with a winners cheque of USD 5,573 to round off an action-packed Saturday in Bengaluru.

Results:

Singles Semi-final:

Vaishnavi Adkar (IND) bt 2-Lanlana Tararudee (THA) 6-3, 6-3; 3-Hanne Vandewinkel (BEL) bt 5-Polina Iatcenko 6-4, 7-6(5)

Doubles Final:

Misaki Matsuda/ Eri Shimizu (JPN) bt 3-Priska Madelyn Nugroho (INA) / Ankita Raina (IND) 6-4, 3-6, 10-5

Photos – Deepthi Indukuri