On Sunday, February, India’s wildcard entrant Vaishnavi Adkar finished her campaign at the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open W100 Bengaluru 2026 held at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium as runner-up. The Indian lost the finals match to Belgium’s Hanne Vandewinkel, who defeated Adkar by sets of 6-0, 6-1. Third seed and World No. 124 Vandewinkel dominated the one-hour finals match with a decisive win over Adkar.
In the opening set, Adkar faced early pressure after getting put down by her Belgian opponent. Vandewinkel, who managed to capitalize on the unforced errors, got herself the lead in the first set by 6-0. Meanwhile, in the second and final set, the Belgian player stood out after securing an early break in the start.
But Adkar, with a resilient approach, earned herself three break points in the fourth game, which, somehow, ended up getting saved by Vandewinkel. The Belgium player then went on to convert her second match points and seal the victory after Adkar in straight sets. The win got Vandewinkel WTA’s 100 ranking points and prize money worth USD 15,239.
Adkar’s promising campaign
The 21-year-old from Pune entered the tournament with a World No. 690 ranking. Her runner-up finish at the ITF Bengaluru Open 2026 is special as she was the first Indian woman after Sania Mirza to qualify for the Women’s singles finals. Her road to finals saw her emerge victorious over top-ranked opponents and was soon to make her first-ever entry into the top 500 of the WTA rankings.
Not just that, but Adkar thought her performance had earned 65 ranking points and a sum of USD 8,147 for her performance. The Indian is en route to create a milestone in Indian women’s tennis. Earlier in the semi-finals, Adkar had defeated World No. 126 Lanlana Tarundee of Thailand by sets of 6-3, 6-3. The match lasted for an hour and 7 minutes.
Adkar’s road to the final saw her victory over three seeded players. Earlier in the tournament, the World University Games medalist defeated eighth seed Mai Hontama of Japan by sets of 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) in the Round of 16 clash. She then went on to defeat a Top 150 player in the quarter-finals match. She faced the fourth seed and world No. 148 Taylah Preston of Australia and emerged with a win after defeating her by sets of 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Adkar had won her first ITF title back in the 2024 edition.
