WTT Star Contender 2026: Snehit, Nithya Mani upsets higher-ranked opponents to reach singles pre-quarters

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manush Shah also advance to the round of 16

Chennai, February 13, 2026: 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 of the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026, co-hosted by Ultimate Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal Academy, and Stupa Sports AI with the support of SDAT at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University here 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.

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 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 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 expectations but the first two games he lost actually gave him the confidence that he can 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.