On Thursday, February 26, 2026, India’s Vaidehee Chaudhari advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITF W35 event in Burnie, Australia. The fourth seed, Vaidehee, defeated wildcard Belle Thompson in the second round by sets of 7-6(4), 6-3. The match lasted for an hour and 48 minutes. In the quarterfinals, the World No. 470 will face China’s World No. 717 Chengyiyi Yuan.
Meanwhile, in the ITF W15 event held in Gurugram, India’s Zeel Desai defeated Yashaswini Panwar by sets of 6-2, 6-1 in the second round. She is the only Indian contingent remaining in the event and is next headed to compete against fifth-seed Michika Ozeki of Japan. The winner of the match will then qualify for the semifinals.
Vaidehee started her prolific run in tennis at the age of 21. She ended up winning both the singles and doubles titles at the Kaushalya Devi Doda AITA tournament in November with a pool prize worth ₹2,50,000. In addition to that, she made it to the ITF 15K quarter final in Bangalore and Solapur, respectively. The young Indian prodigy had started playing tennis at 9 years of age.
“I have been playing for the last 11 years under my coach, Jignesh Rawal, in Ahmedabad. My first international tournament was in 2016. My parents, my coaches have had a big hand behind my journey. My coach Jignesh Rawal is a very dedicated person and very hard working. I normally play more singles, but this is my first 15k doubles final, first ITF women’s final, so it’s a good achievement of the year.”
The youngster, however, looks up to Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic as her idols.
“I like Serena Williams. I like her serve. She just bangs the ball in. (Laughs as she shows me how!) On the men’s side, I like Djokovic. His court coverage is amazing. He reaches every ball, and he is very smart. He keeps it simple and doesn’t try anything different but consistently sends the ball back. In my match against Pranjala (quarter final at 15K ITF at Bangalore), I tried so much and ran so much – for every single ball and kept trying to move her from side to side, but, ultimately, she used her experience to win. I could have won the tournament!,” she added.
