India has their lone title contenders to play in the mixed doubles final at the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026. On Saturday, fourth seeds Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade secured their finals spot in the event after securing a dominant win in the all-Indian semi-finals match against the wild card pair of Payas Jain and Syndrella Das. Harmeet and Yashaswini defeated Payas and Syndrella in three straight sets by 11-9, 11-6, 11-9.
With the win, Harmeet and Yashaswini, as the only Indian contenders in the tournament, will face second seeds Eduard Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs of Romania in the finals of the mixed doubles event. Meanwhile, the Romanian pair qualified after defeating the third seeds, Oh Junsung and Miku Nagasaki, in the semi-final match. The Korean-Japan duo retired after trailing at 1-2.
Earlier in the pre-quarterfinals, the Indian fourth seeds defeated Romania’s Darius Movileanu and Andreea Dragoman in straight sets by 11-8, 11-4, 11-7. Their run continued in the quarterfinals match against the young pair of Ankur Bhattacharjee and Swastika Ghosh.
No medal for India in the singles category
India’s campaign in the singles event came to an end after Nithya Mani and Sathiyan G were eliminated in the women’s pre-quarterfinals and men’s quarterfinals matches. In the women’s singles, India’s Nithya Mani lost to Chinese Taipei’s fourth seed Cheng I-Ching by 1-3 (9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8) in the pre-quarterfinals match. Meanwhile, in the men’s singles quarterfinals, India’s Sathiyan suffered a disappointing loss to Czechia’s Lubomir Jancarik, who won in dominant style by 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 13-11).
The Czech has proved to be a lethal opponent for the Indian table tennis players in the tournament, with earlier eliminations of Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar. After defeating Sathiyan, Jancarik is next headed to face the Korean Republic’s Park Ganghyeon in the semi-finals.
Elsewhere, in the women’s doubles finals match, India had no contender to represent in the event. But it was Japan’s Sakura Yokoi and Sachi Aoki who won the title over the top-seeded Koreans Ryu Hanna and Kim Nayeong after defeating them with a score of 3-1.
With no hope for a title or podium finish in the singles event, Harmeet and Yashaswini carry India’s lone medal victory, bringing at least a silver, if they lose the finals match of the mixed doubles event in the 2nd WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026.
