Chennai, Feb 14 (IANS) Fourth seeds Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade will carry India’s lone title hope after they eased into the mixed doubles final of the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University in Chennai on Saturday.

Desai and Ghorpade were in total command in the all-Indian mixed doubles semifinal, beating wildcard Payas Jain and Syndrella Das 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-9) in the second edition of the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026, co-hosted by Ultimate Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal Academy, with the support of SAI, TTFI & SDAT.

The Indian combination will now face the second seeds Eduard Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs of Romania, who advanced after the third seeds Oh Junsung of Korea and Miku Nagasaki of Japan conceded the match while trailing 1-2.

Oh’s injury meant that the unseeded French combination of Flavien Coton and Thibault Poret were crowned men’s doubles champions without playing a single point in the final.

Japan’s Sakura Yokoi and Sachi Aoki turned out to be too strong for Korean top seeds Ryu Hanna and Kim Nayeong in the women’s doubles final, winning 3-1 (11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 11-8).

Earlier, India’s hopes in men’s singles were dashed as Czechia’s Lubomir Jancarik claimed his third consecutive victory over a host paddler, this time beating Sathiyan G 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 13-11) in the quarterfinals.

Jancarik had defeated Manush Shah in the pre-quarters and Manav Thakar in the second round and will now face the Republic of Korea’s Park Ganghyeon in the semifinals.

Earlier, Sathiyan kept Indian hopes alive in men’s singles as he fought back from a 1-2 deficit to beat Ionescu 3-2 (9-11, 11-3, 10-12, 11-7, 11-5) to advance. He will now face Czechia’s Lubomir Jancarik, who got the better of India’s Manush Shah 3-1 (11-4, 13-11, 5-11, 13-11).

Meanwhile, Sehit Suravajjula’s giant-killings run came to an end when he went down 3-1 (11-6, 10-12, 15-13, 11-7) against top seed Oh Junsung.

The Korean, however, has given a walkover to Frenchman Thibault Poret in the quarterfinals after he injured himself during the mixed doubles semifinals. India’s challenge in women’s singles also came to an end after qualifier Nithya Mani lost 3-1 (9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8) against Chinese Taipei’s fourth seed Cheng I-Ching in the pre-quarterfinals.

–IANS

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