Chennai, Feb 13 (IANS) Snehit Suravajjula saved six match points in the decider to upset Japanese 13th seed Mizuki Oikawa, while qualifier Nithya Mani packed off 14th seed Minhyung Jee of Australia to reach the men’s and women’s singles pre-quarterfinals in 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 in the event co-hosted by Ultimate Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal Academy, and Stupa Sports AI with the support of SDAT.

Nithya, World No. 481, upset 14th seed Jee of Australia 3-2 (10-12, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7) in the second round clash. She will now face fourth seed Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei, who defeated Ayhika Mukherjee 3-1 (11-9, 11-5, 11-13, 11-5).

Also advancing to the men’s pre-quarters were 10th seed G Sathiyan and 15th seed Manush Shah. Sathiyan defeated the Korea Republic’s Lim Jonghoon 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 13-11) while Manush beat another Korean, Park Gyuhyeon, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9. Sathiyan will now face Romanian 8th seed Eduard Ionescu, while Manush will meet Lubomir Jancarik of the Czech Republic.

But it was Snehit’s win that kept everyone on the edge of their seat on Friday.

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 expectation, but the first two games he lost actually gave him the confidence that he could 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.

Meanwhile, wild card entrants Payas Jain and Syndrella Das upset top seeds Manush Shah and Diya Chitale 3-1 (12-10, 13-11, 10-12, 11-9) to reach the mixed doubles semifinals.

India is assured of one spot in the mixed doubles final as they will face fourth seeds Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade in the semifinals.

–IANS

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