Prarthana Thombare and Vaishnavi AdkarNEW DELHI: The row over India's tennis squad for the 2026 Asian Games intensified on Tuesday after the All India Tennis Association (AITA) categorically rejected claims that it failed to submit the names of excluded players to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). The national federation denied a claim made by Sports Authority of India (SAI) source to news agency PTI that the omitted players — Manas Dhamne, Sahaja Yamalapalli, Vaishnavi Adkar, Vaidehee Chaudhari and Prarthana Thombare — did not feature in the shortlist forwarded by AITA to the IOA, and therefore were absent from the final list considered by the Sports Ministry.

com has accessed the letter dated July 3 which was sent to the IOA CEO Raghuram Iyer where merits of each player, including recent history, was mentioned. AITA stated that Secretary General Sunder Iyer had written to Iyer on July 3, making an "urgent representation seeking review of the exclusion of tennis players from the Indian contingent" and specifically naming Dhamne, Ankita Raina, Yamalapalli, Chaudhari, Adkar and Thombare.

com, AITA had argued that India should field its strongest possible contingent and maximise medal opportunities across all five tennis events rather than relying solely on uniform ranking criteria. com reported, the Sports Ministry had stuck by its selection policy, which requires singles players to be among Asia's top six and doubles players to be inside the continental top-eight over a 12-month evaluation period.

The ministry has also maintained that the criteria will not be relaxed despite criticism made by two-time Asian Games medallist Rohan Bopanna. AITA's case for the quartetThe federation's representation highlighted that India had earned multiple strong acceptance-list positions in doubles events.

AITA said India had three mixed doubles pairs inside the top-eight accepted entries — Rutuja Bhosale/Yuki Bhambri (seeded No. 2), Ankita Raina/N.

Sriram Balaji (No. 5) and Prarthana Thombare/Anirudh Chandrasekar (No.

8). Since each country can enter only two pairs, AITA argued this represented two genuine medal opportunities.

It also pointed out that Thombare and Bhosale were positioned at No. 10 on the women's doubles acceptance list, with withdrawals potentially opening the door to the main draw.

Excluding established doubles specialists, the federation said, would weaken India's medal prospects. For the singles events, AITA described Yamalapalli as India's highest-ranked women's singles player, praised Adkar's international multi-sport credentials, backed Chaudhari's consistency on tour and termed 18-year-old Dhamne one of India's brightest young prospects whose Asian Games participation would aid both immediate competitiveness and long-term Olympic development.