India’s top mixed doubles combination of Manush Shah and Diya Chitale kept their nerves in the decider to pack off Korea’s Republic’s Oh Seunghwan and Kim Seongjin and reach the quarterfinals of the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University in Chennai on Thursday.
The top seeded Indian combination, who recently won the WTT Contender Muscat 2026, were pushed to the brink by the Korean qualifiers as they saved three match points before the home favourites emerged victorious 3-2 (10-12, 11-6, 12-10, 5-11, 12-10) in 42 minutes.
They will now face Indian wild cards Payas Jain and Syndrela Das, who defeated Kazakhstan’s Iskender Kharki and Sarvinoz Mirkadirova 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 in their first-round clash.
Fourth seeds Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade and the young combination of Ankur Bhattacharjee and Swastika Ghosh also set up an all-Indian quarterfinal.
Desai and Ghorpade defeated Darius Movileanu and Andreea Dragoman of Romania 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-7) while Bhattacharjee and Ghosh beat another Korean combination of Park Gyuhyeon and Kim Nayeong 3-2 (11-9, 3-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9).
While the mixed doubles players excelled, it wasn’t a good opening day for the hosts in other categories as the top seeded men’s doubles combination of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah went down 3-1 (12-1, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9) against Flavien Coton and Thibault Porey of France.
Shah and Thakkar appeared to be in control from the outset, but threw away a staggering six Game Points to concede the first game. Although they levelled things up in Game Two, they struggled to keep hold of the tie and found themselves trailing again. In the final game, Shah and Thakkar scored four winners to overturn a 5-2 deficit but were pegged back twice before the French team set up two Match Points, taking it at the second attempt.
The Indians had enjoyed a bright start to 2026, reaching the semifinal of WTT Contender Muscat 2026 last month, with Shah winning the Mixed Doubles event and a Men’s Singles title at WTT Feeder Vadodara 2026. For Coton and Poret, this is the first time they have teamed up at Infinity ∞ Arena since WTT Feeder Panagyurishte 2024.
In the women’s singles first round clash, 15-year-old Divyanshi Bhowmick put up a good fight against WTT Feeder Series Vadodara 2026 winner Ryu Hanna of Korea but ended up on the wrong end of a 3-1 (6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-5) scoreline.
Over in the Women’s doubles, several enthralling ties unfolded. One of the opening matches of the day saw No.1 seed Ryu Hanna and Kim Nayeong narrowly avoid defeat, as they squeezed past home crowd favourites Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee over five games (11-4, 3-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8).
Ryu and Kim closed out Game One with seven consecutive points, but the duo known as the Mukherjee Sisters, who aren’t actually related, absolutely dominated the next two games. First, they took nine of the opening 10 points in Game Two and at one point found themselves sitting on a five-point cushion in the third. But the experience of Ryu and Hanna, who reached the semifinal of Europe Smash – Sweden 2025 and United States Smash 2025, led them to victory in the final two games.
There was another close call in the women’s doubles draw, when Wildcards Swastika Ghosh and Sarah De Nutte came back from two games down to beat qualifiers Avani Tripathi and Kavya Bhatt (9-11, 11-13, 11-8, 13-11, 11-6).
One of the most highly anticipated fixtures of the day was women’s doubles No.2 seed Hitomi Sato and Saki Shibata facing off against Joo Cheonhui and Kim Seongjin, a match that guaranteed one of the favourites would go out at the first attempt. And this tie went the way of the Japanese side, who recovered from going a game down to progress to the quarterfinal (6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8).
The tournament is being co-hosted by Ultimate Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal Academy, and Stupa Sports AI with the support of SDAT.
