The spotlight will be on 14-year-old Jensi Kanabar (above pic) among other promising home talents when the ITF Asia-Oceania Closed Regional junior tennis championships kicks off at Deccan Gymkhana on Monday.
Gujarat girl Jensi clinched two junior titles last year, a J30 in home town Ahmedabad and a J60 in Guwahati, and launched the 2026 season in impressive fashion by bagging the girls crown in the Australian Open Asia-Pacific Under-14 championships in Melbourne in January.
Ranked 321 in the juniors, the J300 category event in Pune will be a major step up for the young teen, who will take on Satima Toregen of Kazakhstan in the first round.
Diya Ramesh, the highest ranked Indian in the draw and seeded seventh, faces Australian Emilie Chen while Aishwarya Jadhav, ranked 335, has been drawn against top seed Riyo Yoshida (81) of Japan.
Prisha Shinde and Parthsarthi Mundhe, both local favourites, have been handed wildcards, as well as Deepshika Vinayagamurthy and Malaysia’s Daania Daniella Hazli.
China’s world No. 104 Mailoudi Lei is the second seed and will take on qualifier Shaivi Dalal in her opener.

In the boys’ section, Pune Arnav Paparkar (above pic) is seeded second with a world ranking of 51 while Japan’s 45th ranked Hyu Kawanishi is the top seed. He has been drawn against Korean Tae Woo Kim (133).
The 18-year-old won four titles in 2024 and one the following year, but none above the J60 level. He comes into the tournament on the back of successive finals, a J300 and a J200, in Malaysia and will be keen to make it third time lucky.
Paparkar had also reached the final of the J300 event in Delhi at the start of the year, and will be keen to break the jinx on home courts.
On the other hand, Aradhya Kshitij, the 17-year-old World No. 103, won a J200 title in Kolkata earlier this season. He is the sixth seed and will take on Japan’s 148th ranked Riku Nakamoto in the first round.
Samarth Sahita (173) and Tavish Pahwa (228) are the other Indian youngsters to watch out for.

Snigdha, Shaivi, Panshul, Dev qualify

Snigdha Kanta and Shaivi Dalal in the girls’ section as well as Panshul Uboveja and Dev Vipul Patel (above pic) in the boys’ were among the eight qualifiers to clinch their main draw spots on Sunday.
Har Abir Sekhon of Australia and Korea’s Lee SungMin in the boys and Japan’s Rei Miyamoto and Misaki Sekido in the girls were the other qualifiers.