Chennai, February 12: The WTT Contender Chennai 2026 witnessed an exciting day as India’s top Mixed Doubles pair, Manush Shah and Diya Chitale, along with young talent Ankur Bhattacharjee, secured victories on Thursday.
Recently crowned champions at the WTT Contender Muscat 2026, Manush and Diya faced a tough challenge against Korean qualifiers. They saved three match points before triumphing 3-2 (10-12, 11-6, 12-10, 5-11, 12-10) in a thrilling 42-minute match, advancing to the quarterfinals of the event co-hosted by the Ultimate Table Tennis and Sharath Kamal Academy.
In the next quarterfinal, Manush and Diya will compete against the Indian wildcard pair of Piyush Jain and Cinderella Das, who defeated Kazakhstan’s Iskander Kharky and Sarvinoz Mirakadirova 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 in their opening round.
Ankur also made headlines by eliminating Frenchman Florian Bourassod with a score of 3-1 (11-5, 11-8, 3-11, 11-9). He will now face Japan’s 14th seed, Kazuhiro Yoshimura, in the second round.
Ankur, alongside Swastika Ghosh, reached the mixed doubles quarterfinals after defeating the Korean duo of Park Gyu-hyeon and Kim Na-young 3-2 (11-9, 3-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9). They will challenge the fourth-seeded pair of Harmit Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade, who won against Romania’s Darius Movilenu and Andrei Dragoman 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-7).
In other matches, Snehit Surawajula made a comeback after trailing 1-2, defeating Divyansh Srivastava 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6) to secure a spot in the second round, where he will face Japan’s 13th seed Mizuki Oikawa.
Harmit also advanced to the second round by beating Romania’s Iulian Chirita 3-1 (11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8).
In the women’s singles round of 64, 15-year-old Divyanshi Bhattacharjee put up a strong fight against Korea’s Ryu Hanna, the winner of the WTT Feeder Series Vadodara 2026, but lost 3-1 (6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-5). Diya, however, secured her place in the second round by defeating wildcard Anusha Kutumbale 3-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-8).
