Chennai, February 14 – Fourth seeds Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade easily secured their spot in the mixed doubles final, while Sathiyan G. achieved a hard-fought victory to reach his first-ever men's singles quarterfinals at the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University in Chennai on Saturday.
Desai and Ghorpade dominated the all-Indian mixed doubles semifinal, defeating wild card players Payas Jain and Syndrela Das 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-9).
They will now face second seeds Eduard Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs of Romania, who advanced after third seeds Oh Jun-sung of Korea and Miku Nagasaki of Japan conceded the match while trailing 1-2.
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 defeated India's Manush Shah 3-1 (11-4, 13-11, 5-11, 13-11).
Sathiyan, the 10th seed, advanced when he defeated Korea's Lim Jong-hoon 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 13-11). His compatriot, Manush, also made it, defeating another Korean, Park Gyu-hyeon 11-6, 11-7, 11-9.
Meanwhile, Snehit Suravajjula's impressive run came to an end when he lost 3-1 (11-6, 10-12, 15-13, 11-7) to top seed Oh Jun-sung.
On Friday, Snehit first fought back from a 0-2 deficit to take the match in the deciding set, 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, upsetting Japanese 13th seed Mizuki Oikawa.
However, Korean Oh Jun-sung forfeited his quarterfinal match against Frenchman Thibault Poret after sustaining an injury 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) to fourth seed Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarterfinals. Nithya, ranked world no. 481, had upset 14th seed Jee of Australia 3-2 (10-12, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7) in the second round clash.
