Snehit saves 6 match points, upsets 13th seed Oikawa in a thriller to reach pre-quarters

Snehit Suravajjula saved six match points in the decider to upset 13th seed Mizuki Oikawa of Japan to reach the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University in Chennai on Friday.

Snehit first fought back from a 0-2 deficit to take the match in the decider and then displayed nerves of steel to convert his third match point to win 3-2 (9-11, 15-17, 11-4, 11-6, 18-16) in 52 minutes to set up a Round of 16 clash against top seed Oh Junsung.

Meeting the No.13 seed Oikawa for the first time on the WTT Series, World No.100 Suravajjula soon found himself two games down. But that doesn’t tell the whole tale. Suravajjula could have brought the tie level after saving five Game Points and failing to convert one before his Japanese opponent eventually sealed Game Two.

Suravajjula’s comeback started in style, as the 25-year-old cruised through the third game before scoring seven points in a row to come from behind in the fourth. As if that wasn’t enough action already, Suravajjula came back again, this time from 2-5 down in the final game to lead 7-5, only for Oikawa to go 7-9 up. The Japanese then blew two Match Points before Suravajjula missed two of his own. Oikawa then squandered his third, fourth, fifth and sixth Match Points before Suravajjula finally got the vital two he needed for the win.

Explaining what was going on in his mind during the business end of the fifth game, Snehit said, “I was just telling myself to focus on one point at a time and not think of the score as I made mistakes on the first two match points.”

The 25-year-old said he went into the match without much expectations but the first two games he lost actually gave him the confidence that he can put up a fight. “I lost the first game 9-11 and I was struggling to believe that I could match his level. Then I lost the second game which was also close but that gave me confidence to win the next,” he added.

Nithya Mani beat Minghyun Jee, who is ranked more than 400 places above her, to progress in Chennai

And if that wasn’t enough for you, in the Women’s Singles round of 32, World No. 481 Nithya Mani, ousted Minhyung Jee, the No.14 seed who is ranked 431 places higher, as the drama refused to stop in Chennai (10-12, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7). That was Mani’s fourth 3-2 win of the event, as she fought tooth and nail through two qualifying matches and the round of 64, coming from behind in all of them, to get this far.

There was also another upset in the men’s singles, but not one the home crowd would have been happy to witness, as No.4 seed Mannav Thakkar lost to Lubomir Jancarik (11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9). Thakkar is 13 years younger than Jancarik and is currently sitting at a career-high World No.33, 141 places higher than the Czech.

In the women’s singles, World No.88 Huang Yu-Jie pulled off a stunning straight-games win over No.5 seed Miyuu Kihara (11-9, 11-5, 11-9).

All those matches came after a series of upsets blew the women’s doubles draw wide open in what was a thrilling opening session of the second day of main draw action in Chennai.

Qualifiers Lakshita Narang and Hardee Patel are into the semifinal 

At World 985, Lakshita Narang and Hardee Patel headed to Chennai as the second-lowest-ranked women’s doubles side. But that didn’t stop them from knocking out the qualifiers’ top seed Jennifer Varghese and Suhana Saini in an all-Indian battle and progressing to the semifinal (11-7, 11-6, 11-13).

Over on Table 2, the main sraw’s No.2 seeds, Hitomi Sato and Saki Shibata, lost to Sakura Yokoi and Sachi Aoki in a five-game thriller (11-4, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9). Just a few hours later, the mixed doubles No.1 seed also crashed out, as Wildcard Syndrela Das and Payas Jain put Diya Chitale and Manush Shah to the sword (12, 13-11, 10-12, 11-9).

Last but certainly not least, Elias Ranefur progressed to the round of 16 with a comprehensive victory over Cho Daeseong (12-10, 11-1, 11-3).

Earlier, the experienced men’s doubles combination of Sathiyan G and Harmeet Desai upset third seed French combination of Florian Bourrassaud and Esteban Dorr 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-7) to reach the semifinals. They will now face Korean second seeds Lim Jonghoon and Oh Junsung for a place in the final.

The tournament is co-hosted by Ultimate Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal Academy, and Stupa Sports AI with the support of SDAT.