CHENNAI: 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 to reach the quarterfinals of the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University here 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.
Meanwhile, 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.
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.